Heart of Gold
by xXTheCrypticCrayonXx
Summary: Five years ago, Naruto's parents were murdered. Now, blamed and ostracized, he has to face his innermost fears and learn how to trust those who love him once again. SasuNaru, AU, OOC.
1. Draw Me a Picture, New Kid

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto…Damn!**

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* * *

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Naruto sighed heavily as he stepped into his small, three room apartment. It had been a long day, and he was exhausted. You would have thought that after working two jobs for the past three years with just about no sick days or vacation time, he would be used to it, but that wasn't the case. He quickly went to his room, changed into pajama pants, and set his alarm for his next day of high school. He then flopped on the bed and fell into a deep, troubled sleep within minutes.

* * *

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BE-SMACK.

Naruto groaned as he got out of bed. He got ready, ate breakfast hurriedly, and gathered all the things he would need for school. The blonde boy walked out of his apartment, shut and locked the front door, and was on his way.

He got to school early and made his way to his assigned locker. The hallways were almost empty, which he was grateful for. He quickly shoved all his things into his locker and looked at his schedule:

**1st**** hour (8:17 - 9:02): Japanese III - Touji Mizuki**

**2****nd**** hour (9:06 - 9:51): Physical Education - Maito Gai**

**3****rd**** hour (9:55 - 10:40): Japanese History - Sarutobi Asuma**

**4****th**** hour (10:44 - 11:29): Chemistry - Mitarashi Anko**

**5****th**** hour (11:33 - 12:17): Anatomy - Yakushi Kabuto**

**Lunch (12:17 - 12:47)**

**6****th**** hour (12:50 - 1:35): Art III - Hatake Kakashi**

**7****th**** hour (1:39 - 2:24): Trigonometry - Umino Iruka**

**8****th**** hour (2:28 - 3:13): Study Hall - Hidan (1).**

He sighed as he made his way to Japanese III…with Mizuki…so much fun. As he turned the corner he ran into Shizune, the school Secretary.

"Ah, gomen, Shizune-nee-chan," he apologized.

"Iie, it's alright, Naruto-kun. I was just looking for you actually! We're getting a new student today and since you two are the only ones with such advanced classes in your year, Tsunade-taichou would like for you to show him around and help him today," Shizune replied.

"Ano…I don't know if that's the best idea." Naruto frowned. "I wouldn't want him to get a bad reputation for being around me."

"Nonsense! That won't happen, and besides, he doesn't strike me as the type to care what other people think," she said with a smile.

"Well, if you're sure…I guess I could…but tell obaa-san that it's only for today!"

"Great! Just follow me and you can wait in the office for him to arrive. We'll give you both late slips so you won't get into trouble with your teacher," the woman said.

"Alright," Naruto sighed as he followed her.

* * *

Naruto was sitting in the office talking to Shizune when he walked in. Uchiha Sasuke.

"Sasuke-teme?" asked the confused blonde. "What are you doing here?"

"Naruto-dobe?" asked the just-as-confused, black haired boy. "I just transferred here. I assume you go here too."

"Un, but I thought you moved away back before…" Here he frowned, "before middle school."

Sasuke looked at him questioningly. "Hai, but Itachi decided we should move back so I can go to school here and he could work in the Konohagakure Police Department."

"Well it's nice to see that you two are already acquainted."

Naruto and Sasuke looked over to see Tsunade coming out of her office.

"Nani? You aren't still hungover, baa-san?" Naruto asked and then ducked to avoid the flying stapler.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT CALLING ME THAT, GAKI?" Tsunade screamed.

"Alright, alright! Jeez! No need to get so violent, old hag!" he yelled back. He took one look at her face and said, nervously, "I think we'll be going now! Ja ne!"

He grabbed hold of Sasuke and ran before Tsunade could get her hands on him and tear him limb from limb. Sasuke looked at him like he was crazy.

"Nani?" he asked innocently.

"Hn…never mind."

"So, I guess I should show you to our first class." Sasuke followed Naruto through the empty halls to their first class. As soon as the blonde opened the door, Mizuki was on him.

"You're late!"

"I have a pass, Mizuki-sensei. I was showing the new student around," he replied, while handing the pass to him.

"Fine, go sit down, you dem-Naruto." Mizuki scowled as Naruto went to the back of the classroom with his head down. Sasuke wondered what the teacher had been about to say. "Why don't you introduce yourself and then you can find an empty seat," he said to Sasuke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I used to go to school here before my brother and I moved to Otogakure." Sasuke, to the dismay of the girls in the class, walked to the back of the classroom to sit in one of the empty seats surrounding Naruto.

"Are you sure you want to sit there?" asked some guy with dark skin, and hair. He had a tan jacket with a giant music note on the back.

"Why wouldn't I?" asked Sasuke.

"Dude, don't you know what he _did_?" the guy asked him.

"What are you-?" Sasuke began.

"Kidomaru! Stop talking when I'm teaching!" scolded Mizuki.

Sasuke sat down by Naruto, who was looking at the desk like it was the most interesting thing in the world at that moment. Sasuke decided that he would ask Naruto about it later and started paying attention to Mizuki.

* * *

Naruto showed Sasuke the way to all of his classes, including his Anatomy class with Kabuto: there was something really weird about that guy. Naruto said the man was creepy and gave him a bad feeling, and Sasuke had to agree.

When they got to lunch, Naruto told Sasuke that he could get his food and sit wherever he liked. "I usually just sit outside in the courtyard, unless there's really bad weather," he informed Sasuke. "You can sit with some of our old friends if you don't want to sit with me."

"Why don't you sit with your friends? And why wouldn't I want to sit with you?"

"Well, I don't…actually…have any friends. And if you sit with me you probably won't have any friends, cause not many people like me," he explained hastily. "Actually nobody likes me." Sasuke was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to hear that last part.

"Naruto, what happened after I left? You used to get along great with everyone! Everyone liked you! Why are the teachers and students here so mean to you now?" Sasuke inquired.

Naruto brought his head up so fast, Sasuke was surprised he didn't get whiplash. He thought that Sasuke hadn't noticed the mean looks and the rude remarks he got all day. Then he noticed the looks people were giving Sasuke and him.

"Ano…I…I don't think…I mean I…" suddenly he looked scared.

"Naruto?"

"I'll show you to the rest of your classes today, but if you still need help after that then maybe you should find a different guide."

Sasuke was surprised with the abrupt change in subject. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't think it would be good for you to be around me anymore. It's for the best if you don't talk to me anymore."

"Nani? Why?" asked Sasuke.

"You'll find out sooner or later. Just ask anyone and they'll tell you what happened," replied Naruto.

"Nan-"

RIIIIING.

"Come on, we need to go."

Sasuke just looked at him for a minute before he realized that he had better follow him.

They got to art before everyone else and Naruto went to the furthest table from the door. When the other students walked in they stayed clear of the last table and looked at Sasuke with pity. Except for one group. They looked down at the Naruto's table as if they wanted to join them, but they didn't. Sasuke recognized them as Hinata, TenTen, Shikamaru, Gaara, Kiba, Shino, Neji, and Lee. **(2)**

Their teacher came in 15 minutes late with some lame excuse about having to take care of his dolphin. Sasuke thought that their teacher was very strange: he wore a mask that covered the lower half of his face and a bandana over his right eye. Sasuke glanced at Naruto and was shocked to see his drawing. From what he could see of it, the drawing was really good. Everything was going fine until halfway through class.

"Oi, Naruto!" Right when he looked up a huge blob of bright blue paint hit him in the face. The paint splattered everywhere: in his hair, on his clothes, and on his picture. Just about everyone laughed. Everyone except Sasuke, their old group of friends, and Kakashi. Kakashi jumped out of his chair and walked over to the kid that threw the paint. Sasuke stood up and was about to say something to them when Naruto grabbed his sleeve.

"Don't." He grabbed his stuff and walked to the door. "Kakashi-sensei, I'll be in the bathroom."

"Awww. Is the wittle baby gonna go cry and slit his wrists?" jeered one of the paint throwers' friends. Naruto tensed visibly before hurrying out of the room.

"Get down to the office. Both of you! Now! Before I do something I'll regret!" he said releasing an aura of pure rage. Everyone backed away from Kakashi and the two students. No one had ever seen Kakashi this angry before. "Shikamaru, watch the class while I check on Naruto." Everyone was silent after that.

* * *

"Naruto?" He heard Kakashi yelling his name.

"Down here," he all but whispered from that stall he was in; nevertheless, Kakashi heard him.

"Are you okay?" asked Kakashi.

"Hai, I'm fine."

"Are you lying to me?"

"…Maybe…"

"They're stupid. They don't know what they're talking about, so don't listen to them," he told Naruto.

"Easier said than done."

"Do you want to stay in my class the rest of the day? I can get you a pass. You know Tsunade-sama won't mind."

"…Iie. I promised her and Shizune-nee that I would show around Sasuke-teme."

"Still using those childish nicknames, I see," he said with an eye-smile.

"Un, I guess we are."

* * *

Naruto went back to the Art room at the end of the hour to take Sasuke to trigonometry and study hall. Naruto left the room quickly after class was over, so Sasuke didn't get a chance to talk to him. He figured he would just ask tomorrow and headed to the front of the school building to wait for Itachi to pick him up. When he got there Sasuke climbed into the car.

"Aniki, do you remember Naruto?"

"Naruto? The little blonde that was in your class when you were younger?"

"Hai. Do you know what happened with him? Everyone here is so horrible to him now, even some of the teachers. And when I asked him about it he completely changed the subject. He told me that it would be for the best if we didn't talk to each other anymore and that I shouldn't be seen with him."

Itachi sighed, "I don't know whether I should tell you this or not, but I guess you would rather hear it from me than from those idiots at your school…"

* * *

As Naruto walked home from school, he felt as if someone was watching him. He glanced back, but he never saw anyone. About a block from his apartment, he was pulled into an ally and slammed against the wall. It was the two guys from his art class.

"Thanks to you we got two fucking days of suspension, you fucking demon!" one of them yelled.

He punched Naruto in the stomach: the blonde felt the air leave his lungs. They let go of him and he tumbled to the ground, then they kicked him in the stomach and kneed him in the face. One of them pulled him up by his hair and slammed his fist into Naruto's face. They kept at it until he could barely feel a thing: everything was numb. They gave him one last kick before walking away.

He lay there for a few minutes until he found the strength to stand up. He stumbled the rest of the way to his apartment complex, into the elevator, down the hall, through the door, and into the bathroom. He looked at his face in the mirror. _It's going to be impossible to hide those bruises tomorrow_, he thought. He took care of his wounds and went to his first job of the night. He cooked (and cleaned occasionally) at a restaurant because it was an easy job for him and he got paid a considerable amount. After he got done there, he would head to his second job: bartending. Even though he was underage, they let him work there on the condition that he disguise himself so they don't lose customers for employing 'the demon'.

Naruto could already tell it would be a bad night.

* * *

**(1) **Ok, so I don't really know how classes are over in Japan, so these are some of my classes and some of my sister's classes and just some classes I made up... Oh! For anyone who doesn't know this, study hall is just like a free period. : )

**(2) **If you're wondering, the reason why they are only in this class and not in any others of Naruto and Sasuke's is because all of the other classes are advanced and they aren't placed in those. They are in Naruto and Sasuke's _art _class because its easier to just lump art kids of all levels together instead of having only an art 1 class, or only an art 2 class, etc… We do this at our school and our art teacher just tells us "Art 1 is doing _ and it's due on _. Art 2 is doing _ and it's due on _. Art 3 is doing _ and it's due on _." And then art 4 just has independent study, where they can do whatever they want (drawing, painting, clay, collage, computer graphics, etc…) and they just have to turn in a certain amount of projects a quarter. Its just easier than having to fit it into a schedule at certain times. If you still have questions then feel free to ask me. : ) Oh, and in this story, for all intents and purposes, Team Gai is the same age as the rest of the Rookie 9.


	2. Truth Be Told

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

_Flashback/Dreams in Italics_

* * *

Itachi sighed. "I heard about what happened after we moved, but I looked into it today when I was looking through the Police records…Just after we moved, Naruto's parents were murdered," he said as he started driving.

"Nani? Why didn't you tell me about this? And that still doesn't explain why everyone is so horrible to him!"

"I didn't tell you because our parents had just died and I didn't think you needed anymore pain in your life. Now, if you would let me finish…Minato-san and Kushina-san were murdered when Naruto was 10 years old. They never caught the person or people who did it, but at first the police believed that _Naruto _had killed his parents. The person who killed them wore gloves, apparently, and when they were done, they put the knife into Naruto's hands, so it only had his fingerprints on it. They killed his parents right in front of him, and brutally, too. I'm sure you noticed the scars on Naruto's face?" Here Sasuke nodded. "That's because after those sick freaks slaughtered his parents, they sliced him up too. They carved those marks into his face and some weird design into his stomach. Afterwards, he was too traumatized to talk about it. He couldn't tell the police anything about the murders after he was released from the hospital, so the public thought that Naruto had gone crazy and killed their beloved Hokage and Konoha Academy Principal. To this day everyone except those on the police force, and those who were close to his parents believe he killed them. They call him a demon, they treat him horribly, and they won't let him forget."

"How could they believe that he would do something like that? He's not that kind of person! Why would they treat him like that?" shouted Sasuke. Itachi was startled: Sasuke wasn't usually this loud.

"They are too blinded by their hate to realize what they are doing. They didn't see him as a poor little boy who lost his parents in a horrible way. And they don't see him, now, as an unfortunate teenager who has more responsibility placed on his shoulders than most adults do," stated Itachi.

"Why hasn't anyone done anything about this?" demanded Sasuke.

"He won't allow them to," Itachi replied. "People care about him but he pushes them away so that they aren't hurt by being around him."

"…That's why he told me that we shouldn't be seen together anymore," realized Sasuke.

"Exactly. Plenty of people have tried to help him: they still try when they get the chance. I know that some of your teachers and people at your school help him all they can."

"Like Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sasuke.

"Hai. And Principal Tsunade-sama and her husband Jiraiya-sama, her assistant Shizune-san, your teachers Gai-san, Asuma-san, Anko-san, Iruka-san, and the school councilor Kurenai-san. Your old friends also try to help when they can, but he doesn't make it easy for them."

"Why doesn't he understand that they don't care about what others think of them?"

"Maybe you all can show him that," said Itachi.

* * *

Naruto finally got home from work at around 2:30 in the morning and laid on the bed softly, being careful of his bruises.

_He woke with a start. Had he heard something? _

"_AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" _

_Naruto jumped out of bed. He snuck down the hall to his parent's room. He wondered why the door was open. His parents always slept with the door closed. He peeked through the door frame. There was someone with long hair standing over his dad with something in their hand. His mom was across the room. The person laughed and turned: it was a man. His mind processed that it was a knife in the man's hand. His dad wasn't moving. There were dark stains all over his dad and the bed. His eyes widened in understanding._

"_Tou-san? Kaa-san?" he asked as he walked into the room. The man and his mom looked towards him. He saw the man give a creepy smile, and his mom started to make her way towards him._

"_Step away, Kushina!" the man said with a creepy, raspy voice._

"_Leave him alone! He's just a child!" his mom screamed at the man._

"_I said to step away!"_

"_Naruto-chan, run!" his mom yelled._

"_B-But-" he stuttered. _

"_NOW!" she screamed._

_He noticed the man coming towards him, so he ran out the door. He heard a smacking noise back in his parent's bedroom. He ran down the hall and headfirst into another person. Circles of light glinted off the places where that person's eyes would be. Naruto backed up and turned to run the other way: the second person grabbed him from behind. He screamed. They put a hand over his mouth, he bit it, and he got hit in the head._

"_The little fucker bit me!" the man shouted._

"_Just bring him in here," called the man from the room. The man holding him brought him back into the room and he saw hell. The creepy man lunged at his mother, dug his knife into her stomach, and dragged it up through her chest as she screamed in pure agony. Blood splattered everywhere. It was on the walls, on the man, on Naruto. Naruto screamed at the man and struggled to get away from him to help her, but he wasn't strong enough. The man pulled out the knife and stabbed her with it again and again. He stabbed her nine times before he dropped her to the ground. _

"_Kaa-san? IIE!" Naruto screamed and cried as the man walked towards him. He held the knife towards his face while the second man held him still. He took the knife and dragged it across each cheek three times. As he cried the tears rolled into the cuts and burned them. Then he cut Naruto's shirt off and dragged the knife across his stomach in some kind of swirl design._

"_Stop! Please stop! P-Please!" he screamed in pain._

_The man holding him dropped him, and he bled onto the carpet. As his vision darkened he felt one of the men grab his hand and put something in it. He didn't have the strength to see what it was. As he drifted off he heard sirens in the distance._

"AAAHHHHHH!" Naruto woke up screaming and gasping for air. In his eyes shone pure terror. After he calmed down a bit, he looked at the clock and saw that it was only 5:30 in the morning-still two hours before he normally woke up. He tried to fall back to sleep to no avail. His mind was racing with thoughts about _that_ night. This was the most he had ever remembered about it, but he still wasn't any closer to figuring out who killed his parents than he was before. All he knew was that there were two guys: one had long hair and a raspy voice and the other had glasses. Naruto knew he would never get back to sleep after that, so he decided to just get ready early and get some groceries before school.

* * *

Naruto placed his groceries on the check out counter. The cashier glared at him and ended up overcharging him.

When the blonde left, he headed back to his apartment and put away all his groceries. Afterwards, he got his school things together and headed to school as it was already 7:30 and it wouldn't kill him to get there early.

_Well, I guess it's back to being alone all day, _thought Naruto. When he got to school, he headed to his locker and got his things out.

"Yo, Naruto."

"Oh, Ohayo, Kakashi-sensei!" he said turning to face the man.

"Naruto, what happened to your face?" asked Kakashi, in shock.

"Oh, a-ano, it's nothing," answered Naruto.

"Naruto, was it the kids from art yesterday?" questioned Kakashi.

"Iie. It was just an accident." He wouldn't meet Kakashi's eyes.

"Naruto, I know it wasn't an accident. Why won't you tell us when you need help? You know we all just want to help you, right? Tsunade-sama, Jiraiya-sama, Ruka-chan, your other teachers, your old friends: we all just want to help you. Ruka-chan even moved schools with you so that he could watch over you. We can't do that if you won't let us. We just want to make sure you're safe and happy," explained Kakashi.

"You don't need to worry about me. I'm fine on my own; I don't need you guys to help me. I can take care of myself, I have been since…well, for a while," he muttered. "You guys should just worry about yourselves. Besides, if any of you guys help me, people will treat you differently for associating with 'the demon'."

"You are not a demon! And we don't care whether or not we're treated differently. We know you don't think you need our help, but you do. Someone who gets beaten up this regularly needs help. And besides, how are we _not _supposed to worry when you come to school with bruises all over? Like it or not, we _do _worry about you, so you just need to get used to it," Kakashi argued.

"You may not care, but I do! Do you think I want you all to be discriminated against because you help me? Everything is perfectly fine how it is now. I don't need anything to change! I'm used to how I'm treated, but that doesn't mean anyone else should have to get used to it! It wouldn't be fair for me to ask that of you!" shouted Naruto.

"You don't have to ask us, dobe."

Naruto looked away from Kakashi. "Sasuke-teme?" He looked around at the people that had gathered while he and Kakashi had been talking. They were all his old friends: Sakura, Ino, Hinata, TenTen, Shikamaru, Chouji, Shino, Kiba, Neji, Gaara, and Lee.

"You guys don't understand-" started Naruto.

"We don't understand what?" asked Sakura. "We can take care of ourselves. You, on the other hand, need help. I know that you could win if you fought back against those jerks that pick on you, so why don't you?" She lightly hit him upside the head.

"That would just make everything worse," explained Naruto. "You think that if I fight back they'll leave me alone? They won't! They would just get even more people to beat me up the next time. And that won't get any of the villagers to hate me less or to treat me better. If anything it'll make them believe even more that I'm a demon!"

"Then let us help you!" said Kiba.

"Yosh! Let us defeat them with the POWER OF YOUTH!" shouted Lee…No one paid any attention to him.

"You don't have to go through everything alone. You have people that love you and want you to be happy," said Sasuke.

They all gave him their word that they would never abandon him. They would always be there to help him, no matter what. They all smiled at Naruto as he looked around at them.

"So…you guys actually believe me…about what happened? You don't think that I…killed them?" asked Naruto timidly.

Sigh. "Troublesome. Of course we believe you! We know that you didn't do it. We all believed you from the beginning. We knew that you could never do something like that. Not even if your life depended on it. Our parents all believe you too. They knew your mother and father, and you when you were younger. They knew that it would have been impossible for you to do that," stated Shikamaru. Everyone gaped at him, and they all thought the same thing: _Who knew he could actually say that much at one time?_

"Arigatou gozaimasu." Those two words were whispered, but they heard still heard them. It just about broke their hearts to know that the blonde was thanking them for such a trivial thing as believing their friend and wanting to be there for him.

The group talked for a while before the bell rang and they had to go to class. They had informed Naruto of anything important he had missed while he had been avoiding them.

Sasuke was right by Naruto's side all day and if he wasn't, someone else was. They had decided that they would protect him from whoever they had to and that someone should be on 'guard duty' all day, every day. They stood up for him if someone harassed him and made sure that no one even got the chance to beat on him. At the end of the day, everyone was relieved: no one had managed to hurt Naruto all day. The group had decided that someone would walk him home everyday so that he wouldn't be ambushed while walking home from school either. Sasuke volunteered for this job right away and the group could all tell why. They knew he liked the blond boy in a different way than them: they could tell by the way that he looked at Naruto and how fierce he was about protecting him. They were glad that he would finally have some happiness in his life when he figured it out. He deserved all the happiness he could get after everything he had been through.

* * *

**A/N:** If you were wondering, Naruto has his mother's last name because his dad was the leader of the village, so he didn't want his enemies to come after Naruto. I know, it kind of sounds lame, but I'm just using the excuse from the manga/anime. And his mom's last name was Uzumaki-Namikaze…in this fic.


	3. Beat Me Senseless

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I _do_**** own a Gaara plushie!**

* * *

About a month had passed since Naruto's friends had started watching over him more closely. They sat with him during lunch and Art class, while Sasuke also kept him company in their other classes together. The group kept the blonde boy as safe and as happy as he could be.

Sasuke and Naruto had gotten pretty close in this short amount of time. He was starting to have different feelings for Sasuke than he had for his other friends, but he didn't want to say or do anything that might ruin their friendship. Nevertheless, Sasuke and Naruto had started to spend a great deal of time together. They could relate to each other. They both understood the feeling of losing both parents and the loneliness that came with it, although Sasuke _did _have Itachi, he was gone a lot for work. The two would hang out together whenever Naruto had free time, but they always went to Sasuke's house. And whenever Sasuke would bring up anything about where Naruto lived the blonde would change the subject. Like the time Naruto abruptly asked Sasuke how he had known about his past.

"Naruto-dobe, who do you live with?"

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto nervously.

"Well, you said that you didn't have any living relatives, so who takes care of you?" asked Sasuke.

"I have a caretaker," Naruto said quickly. "How did you ever find out about what happened, anyway?"

"Itachi told me," he said. "He's a part of the Konoha Police Department and he had read the file on what happened. I asked him the day after I first came to school and he told me what happened."

Sasuke was suspicious about the whole caretaker thing, but he let it slide. He didn't want to bother Naruto or make him feel uncomfortable, and he soon forgot about it.

Everything was going great for Naruto. But as most people know, nothing good lasts forever. Especially not for someone with Naruto's horrible luck.

He had not yet told anyone about his two jobs, and he wasn't planning on it for a while still. They all believed that he had a caretaker and that she was paying all of the bills, when she had actually left him alone three years before with nothing. No note, no money, no food, and definitely no home. He had had to find an apartment that would house 'the demon' and get jobs to pay for rent, electricity, water, food, a cell phone (he needed a contact number for his school), and anything else he might need. He was lucky that his tuition for Konoha Academy was paid for by Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama. They were the only ones who knew about his situation, and even though they didn't like it one bit, they couldn't convince him to accept their help or money.

Naruto didn't tell his friends about his situation because he didn't want them to worry anymore than they already did. Therefore, while his friends could make sure that he was not attacked at school or on his way home from school, they could not do the same when he went to and from his jobs. Unfortunately, some of his tormentors from school had figured out that he had jobs. Not only did they discover this information, but they also discovered where he worked and when he worked. It was when he was getting off work from his second job that they ambushed him.

"Oi, Demon-boy!"

Naruto turned to see who had called him: he knew that no one else would be called such a name. It was the group that called themselves the Sound Four. **(1)**

"What do you want?" asked Naruto.

"What do you think?" mocked the large one with orange hair, who Naruto was pretty sure was called Jirobo.

"We just wanted to…talk, now that your little guardians aren't here," said one of the twins.

"Yeah, right," replied Naruto. "Since when do you guys only want to talk?"

They all looked at each other. "You're right. Kidomaru!" The girl shouted. She and the one now known as Kidomaru, lunged at him: he barely had time to react. He attempted to move out of the way, but the girl seized his arm. Naruto's conscience wouldn't allow him to hit a girl, no matter how horrid and deceiving she was. Kidomaru took advantage of this and grabbed hold of his other arm. As soon as he was restrained, the twins and the big guy made their way over. The big guy punched him in the stomach, and he doubled over in pain. As he gasped for air, one of the twins pulled Naruto's head up by his hair.

"What did I ever do to you?" asked Naruto.

"It's nothing personal, its just good business," the girl said. **(2)**

"What do you mean 'good business'?" asked a thoroughly confused Naruto.

"Someone requested that we beat you up, for…a lot of money," said Kidomaru. "They want the job done right and figured we were the best ones to do that."

"Who-?"

"Enough with the chitchat!" exclaimed the girl. "Let's just get on with it!"

With that said, one of the twins socked him on the side of his face. The other slammed a fist into his gut. They kept hitting them, and he tried to fight them off by kicking them with his legs. That is, until one of the twins broke his left leg. He screamed in pain. They thought this was funny and laughed loudly. They figured he could no longer fight back and dropped him to the ground.

The guy with the orange hair kicked him in the side and they all heard a few audible cracks. He screamed louder than the first time: the pain was five times worse than his broken leg. They left in a hurry after he screamed, one of them saying something along the lines of not wanting to get caught. Before they left, though, they dragged him into an alley a few feet away: probably so no one would find him for a while. That was enough to send pain racing throughout his body.

Naruto knew he would never make it back to his apartment like this and he most likely needed medical treatment. They thought of going to a hospital almost made him faint. He had been scared of hospitals since he was little, but that fear intensified after his parents had been killed for obvious reasons. _Not to mention how much it will cost_, thought Naruto, frightened. _How will I ever pay for it all?_

He was in too much pain to think about that right now, he decided. As he lay there on the ground, he dug around in his pockets, being very careful of his wounds, trying to find his cell phone. It definitely wasn't as easy as it sounds. When he finally found the rarely used thing, he went through the extremely short contacts list until he got to Iruka's number. He hit the call button. The phone rang five times before he answered.

"Moshi Moshi," answered a tired sounding Iruka. Naruto remembered that normal people were in bed at this time, after all it was somewhere around one in the morning.

Cough "Iruka-nii." Naruto said, breathing shallowly.

"Who-Naruto? What's wrong?" asked Iruka.

"I was wondering if you could, please, come get me?" asked Naruto before he started coughing. He gasped in pain: it hurt so bad.

"Naruto? What happened?" asked Iruka. Naruto could hear the panic in his voice. He heard something rustling and another voice on the other end.

"I think I need you to take me to the hospital. Please, it hurts." He heard a sharp intake of breath. He knew Iruka must be shocked: for _Naruto _to _ask _to be taken to a hospital, it had to be serious.

"Oh Kami-sama! Naruto, where are you?" asked a frantic Iruka.

"Ano…I think…" he started, looking around, "somewhere on Kanda Street…in an ally…there's an apartment building on either side of me…" He was starting to get tired.

"Ok. Naruto, listen: Kakashi and I are coming to get you. Do you want me to stay on the phone with you or will you be okay until I get there?" Naruto heard the sound of clothes being pulled on and a door opening.

"…I'll be fine, just hurry. Arigatou," replied Naruto. He was too out of it to even ask why Kakashi would be coming with him.

"Naruto, we're getting in the car now, okay? We'll be there as soon as we can. I promise," he heard Iruka say.

"Alright. Ja." He hung up the phone. _Now all there is to do is wait_, thought Naruto. He was getting kind of tired. _Maybe I could-Iie! _If Iruka found him passed out on the ground, he would probably go into hysterics. He would just have to hold on until they got there. He waited and waited. His mind was in a daze: his body was in pain. It seemed as if time was passing so slowly. He tried to move, to make himself more visible, but he realized that wasn't the best idea when the pain came back full-force. He cried out in agony: that was when Iruka and Kakashi found him.

"Naruto!" he heard Iruka shout.

He saw Iruka and Kakashi run up to him. They kneeled on each side of him.

"Kuso!" shouted Iruka. Naruto was shocked. He had never heard Iruka curse in front of him before.

"Ruka-chan, we need to get him to the car to take him to the hospital," said Kakashi, with sadness in his voice. "Naruto, what's hurt?"

"They broke my leg and probably some ribs," Naruto told them, tearing up at the pain. "My stomach is pretty much one big bruise and my head is throbbing." He groaned after he was done talking.

"Kuso!" swore Iruka again.

"Alright. Naruto, the car is just down the street so I'm going to go get and bring it as close as I can. We're going to have to pick you up and move you to it, though," explained Kakashi.

He groaned: this was not going to be fun. "…Ok."

It only took Kakashi a few minutes to get back and then he got out and came over to them.

"I'm going to carry him," Kakashi said to Iruka, "I need you to support his legs so they're not just dangling there." Iruka nodded.

Kakashi picked him up and he let out a loud shriek of pain. Iruka gasped as he supported Naruto's legs. When they got to the car, Iruka helped Kakashi into the back seat so that he could hold Naruto on the way to the hospital. Then, he got into the driver's seat and started the car.

As Iruka drove, he looked back repeatedly to make sure that Naruto was doing okay. There were a lot of bumps in the road on the way to the hospital, and Kakashi tried his best to keep Naruto from being jostled too much. Eventually, though, he passed out from the pain and exhaustion. Kakashi and Iruka were grateful that he wouldn't have to be in pain for a while, and he could rest.

* * *

**(1)** Ok so I'm kinda confused about whether Kimimaro was included or not in the manga/anime (if he was included that would make it the Sound Five), but I've also heard it called the Sound Five because of Sakon and Ukon, so in my fic its just gonna be the Sound Four-so no Kimimaro (cause I like him and I don't want him to be a bad guy! 3 but he might still be in the fic) and I guess Sakon and Ukon will be counted as one cause they're twins…sorta.

**(2)** Cookies for anyone that can tell me what movie that's from! : )


	4. Love Of a Family

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I **_**do**_** own this fic!**

* * *

When Naruto came to, he figured he was in the hospital, seeing as almost everything was white. Everything except a certain someone.

"How are you feeling?" asked Iruka.

"Actually, I feel pretty good right now," answered Naruto, his voice a little hoarse.

"That'll be because of the painkillers." Iruka and Naruto looked up. Kakashi had just walked into the room holding two cups full of what smelled like coffee. He headed over and handed one to Iruka. For once, he wasn't reading that orange book that he carried with him everywhere.

As Naruto looked around, he noticed that he was connected to a heart monitor and had an IV in his arm. He was wearing some sweat pants and was covered with a blanket up to his shoulders. From his mid-thigh to his toes, his left leg was in an orange cast with Iruka and Kakashi's signatures on it. Naruto figured Iruka had told the doctors what color to wrap the cast in, after all, who would guess that someone wanted a bright orange cast? He lifted the blanket to see a brace thing wrapped around his chest. **(1)**

"What time is it?" asked Naruto.

"Oh, about two in the afternoon," Iruka told him tiredly.

"Nani? You didn't have to stay with me," said Naruto, in shock. "You should have gone home and got some rest."

"We wanted to stay," Kakashi butted in. "And besides, we had to know how you were."

"And I know you don't like hospitals," added Iruka, "so we wanted you to have someone here for you when you woke up."

"But what about your classes?" asked Naruto.

"We called in and told Tsunade-sama what happened. She said not to worry about it, and she'll get us subs for however long we need them."

"…No one has ever stayed at the hospital with me or visited me. Not since my parents…," said Naruto quietly as tears started to form in his eyes.

"Oh, Naruto." Iruka reached over and hugged him. He felt horrible that such a simple thing made the blonde boy cry.

"Well, I have a feeling that you'll be getting a lot of visitors later today," stated Kakashi once Iruka had gotten him calmed down enough. Naruto looked at him in confusion.

"Why?"

"Well your friends will want to make sure you're alright. Tsunade-sama, Jiraiya-sama, and Shizune-san will be sure to come also," replied Kakashi.

"Really?" asked Naruto happily.

"Of course! After you didn't come to school today, I think it's safe to say that your friends stormed into Tsunade-sama's office and demanded to know where you were. Of course, she would have told them, knowing that they care for you, and they will have decided to come here after school," Kakashi replied with an eye smile.

Naruto looked extremely happy at this piece of news. Then he got a curious look on his face.

"Oi, Kakashi-sensei?" he asked innocently. "How come you were at Iruka-nii's house last night when I called? Wasn't it pretty late?" A bright red blush crept onto Iruka's face. What he could see of Kakashi's face had started to turn a little pink also.

"Well…ano…" started Kakashi. "Yeah, I got nothing…" He looked at Iruka pointedly.

"Well, you see, Naruto," stumbled Iruka, "we were just…ano…I mean…we…"

"Nani?" asked a very confused Naruto. Iruka nervously laughed.

"Just tell him, Dolphin-chan." Iruka looked at Kakashi.

"Well, Naruto," he began, "Kakashi and I are…"

"Lovers," stated Kakashi suddenly.

"We're actually living together, but no one really knows yet," Iruka told him.

"Oh~! That explains a _lot_!" Naruto exclaimed before he gasped, and Iruka moved towards him. "Maybe it's not a good idea to shout right now."

"Are you okay?" asked a worried Iruka.

"Yep. I'm fine now," Naruto told him reassuringly. "So…lovers." Iruka looked at him as if he were nervous about what Naruto would say next.

"I hope that's not a problem," Kakashi said.

"Iie!" Naruto groaned. "I have to stop doing that…Of course that's not a problem."

Iruka looked relieved.

"But, if you hurt Iruka-nii, I think I'll have to take all of your Icha Icha books and burn them." Naruto said menacingly. "And that's not all I'll do." Kakashi covered his crotch with his hands.

Kakashi gulped. "I would never hurt Ruka-chan."

"Good," said Naruto, with a lightning fast change of emotion. "Everything should work out fine then." He grinned like a fox: Kakashi looked a little scared.

The three had been talking for a little while, when Iruka asked one of the two questions Naruto had been hoping to avoid:

"Naruto, what were you doing out so late last night?"

"Ano…I had to do something," Naruto tried to evade the question. _At least he didn't ask who did it. By now he probably knows I won't tell him anything._

"What would you have had to do at one' o'clock in the morning?" asked Iruka, bemusedly.

"I had some things that I needed to take care of."

"You know, that kind of makes it sound like you were dealing drugs or something," said Kakashi.

"Nani? Ow! Kuso!" Naruto yelled. "Of course I wasn't dealing drugs!"

"Then what _were_ you doing?" asked Iruka calmly.

"…I have…a job…or two," Naruto muttered.

"Nani? What would you need a job for? Why would you need two jobs, for that matter? Isn't your caretaker supposed to take care of all that? And what kind of job would you have to be out that late for anyways?" questioned Iruka.

"I need jobs because I have to pay for things," answered Naruto. He avoided that last question and hoped Iruka wouldn't notice.

"What kind of things?" demanded Iruka.

"Ano…rent…and utilities…and food…and stuff…" said Naruto, hesitantly.

"Why are you paying for those things, Naruto? Isn't that what your caretaker is for?" Kakashi asked.

"Hai. That's what a caretaker does…if you _have _one," Naruto told them.

"What do you mean? Are you saying that you don't have a caretaker? What happened to the one they assigned you?" asked Iruka in outrage. Naruto looked down.

"Ano, she left…about…three years ago." He looked up. "But I'm fine!" Naruto said at the look on Iruka's face. "I can manage. I've been fine for three years. And it's not that bad."

"Naruto, you shouldn't have to take that kind of responsibility at your age," Iruka told him sadly. "You should have someone to take care of you."

Naruto stayed silent. _It would be nice to be taken care of,_ thought Naruto, _but I couldn't ask that of anybody. Also, no one would _want _to take care of me._

Iruka and Kakashi looked at Naruto sadly. They could tell he was thinking about something. They looked at each other and decided.

"Naruto? Why don't you stay with us? We have an extra room."

"Yeah, and you wouldn't have to pay us rent or anything. You could quit your jobs and just live like a normal teenager," said Iruka.

"But…I couldn't do that! Anyway, don't you guys like your privacy? I couldn't intrude on you like that."

"Nonsense! The rooms are well insulated, so we don't have to worry about you hearing Dolphin-chan-" Iruka slapped a hand over Kakashi's mouth and laughed nervously.

"What he means to say is: you are more than welcome. You wouldn't be intruding on us in the least!"

"But-"

"No buts! It's final! We'll move you in as soon as you get out of the hospital!" said Iruka with a smile. "Then you can quit your jobs also!"

"Well, I still want to keep my job at the restaurant," said Naruto. "Before you say anything: I really like working there, they give me good hours, and they pay me generously. That way I can still pay for my food, my phone bill, and anything else I need…And I'll need the money to pay for my hospital bills." The last sentence was said with dread.

"But-," he stopped at the look Naruto was giving him. Sigh. "…If you insist, you can keep your job," said Iruka begrudgingly, knowing that Naruto wouldn't accept anything else from them. "You don't need to worry about the hospital bills, though, we already took care of them."

"Nani? Why would you do that?" Naruto asked.

"For one, we have insurance," explained Iruka. "And two, you don't need to go into debt trying to pay off something like that."

"Arigatou gozaimasu, Iruka-nii, Kakashi-sensei."

* * *

Throughout the day, a few nurses came in to check Naruto's injuries. Naruto sketched things to keep from being bored. Everything was pretty quiet…Until Naruto's friends got there to see him, about half an hour after school let out.

All of Naruto's friends had gone to Tsunade's office during lunch to see if she knew what happened to Naruto. She told them that he was in the hospital (but that it wasn't life threatening), which hospital he was in, and that Kakashi and Iruka were with him. They decided to go see him after school let out. Sasuke, Sakura, Chouji, and Ino were driven by Itachi; Gaara (who was surprisingly close to Naruto, even with his seemingly emotionless exterior), Shikamaru, Kiba, and Shino were driven by Gaara's older sister, Temari; and Hinata, Neji, Lee, and TenTen were driven by Hinata and Neji's driver. **(2)**

They were worried: they were supposed to protect Naruto and they didn't know how this had happened. When they all got to the hospital, they checked which room he was in and headed there. When they got there, Sasuke was the first one into the room, and the rest followed. Itachi waited outside. They gasped as Naruto looked up at them: he had a big bruise on the right side of his face, bruises on his arms that looked like hand prints, and an orange cast on his left leg. They were pretty sure there were more injuries, but if there were, they were covered by his blanket.

"Hey guys!" Naruto winced after he yelled.

"Dobe, what happened?" asked Sasuke.

"Ano…just the usual…except a little worse…" They grimaced.

"How did this happen? I mean, we made sure that someone went everywhere with you," said Sakura.

"Not everywhere. He didn't tell us something important," said Shikamaru. Everyone looked at Shikamaru and then back at Naruto.

"What's he talking about?" Kiba asked Naruto.

"Maybe we should leave for a bit," Kakashi suggested to Iruka.

"Will you be okay, Naruto?"

"I'll be fine, Iruka-nii," Naruto replied. Iruka looked at Naruto, and, deciding that he had told him the truth, left with Kakashi.

"Now what is Shika talking about?" asked Kiba again.

"Ano…I haven't exactly been…100% truthful to you guys…I don't exactly have a caretaker anymore…she left three years ago…so I had to get jobs to pay for everything…"

"When you say everything…?" started Sasuke.

"I mean rent, utilities, food, phone bill, and anything else."

"Why didn't you just tell us that?" asked Gaara quietly.

"I didn't want you to worry," said Naruto.

"Well now we're just worrying even more," stated Sasuke. "You could have told us! Did you not trust us?"

"Gomen nasai! It's not that I don't trust you guys! It's just that I didn't think that anyone from school knew about me having jobs or where I worked, so I didn't think they could get to me when I walked home! I'm sorry I didn't tell you! I didn't want you guys to worry for me!" shouted Naruto, trying to make them understand. He whimpered as the pain in his ribs rushed back and leaned back on his pillows.

"Naruto?" Sasuke moved quickly towards his bed, shortly followed by the others. He sat down next to the bed in the chair that Iruka had vacated. "What's wrong?"

"My ribs." Sasuke lifted the blanket to see the bandages wrapped around Naruto's torso.

"Those bastards broke your ribs?" he asked darkly. "Who did it?"

"Sasuke, leave it alone," Shikamaru advised him quietly. "He's hurting right now. Just talk to him about it later."

"You're right," he muttered. "Naruto, are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine in a minute. I just shouldn't have shouted."

"I'm sorry for making you yell," apologized Sasuke. "I shouldn't have said that."

Itachi, who was outside the door listening, almost had a heart attack. His brother never apologized about anything! He must _really _like Naruto. The same way he liked a certain _other _blonde. **(3)**

"It's okay, Sasuke," Naruto assured him.

They all talked until they had to leave so their parent's wouldn't worry. Not surprisingly, they all signed his cast before they went.

After they left, Naruto called the restaurant he worked at to tell them that he wouldn't be able to come to work for a while, and he explained his situation. Then he called the bar he worked at and told them that he wouldn't be coming into work anymore and told them not to worry about paying him for last night since he had just gotten his paycheck a couple days before. Not long after that, Iruka and Kakashi came back.

"Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama, and Shizune-san are on their way up," they informed him.

"Once they get here, you guys should go home, wash up, and get some rest," he told them.

"We'll go home and wash up, but after that we're coming back," Iruka told him.

"We can sleep here so don't worry about us," Kakashi told him before he protested.

"If you're sure," said Naruto, but you could hear the appreciation in his voice.

* * *

Once Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Shizune got there, Kakashi and Iruka left. Tsunade gave him his school work for the day. She told him not to worry about it too much and that his friends would bring his school work to him each day. They visited for almost an hour before Kakashi and Iruka got back. When they left, they promised to come back the next day to see him.

* * *

**(1)** Ok, I have never had broken ribs, so I don't know what they feel like and I don't know what the doctor does for you. I know they can't exactly put a cast on them like with broken arms/legs but I've heard different things, so this is what you get. : )

**(2)** Hinata is the Hyuuga heiress, and since Neji is her cousin and they live together, they have a driver to take them places until they are old enough to drive on their own.

**(3)** Three guesses who. : )


	5. Freedom From The Mother Hen

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

_Dreams/Flashbacks in Italics_

* * *

Naruto stayed in the hospital for two more days before the doctors allowed him to go home. The doctors told him that his ribs would heal in about six weeks; his leg in about ten weeks. **(1)** They also said that he shouldn't do much by himself, at least until his ribs were healed. This meant that Kakashi and Iruka had to take turns staying home with him to do anything or get him anything he needed.

Since Kakashi and Iruka had made him agree to stay at their place, the only thing that was left to do was move all of his things. He told them to wait until he was better so he could help them, but they were having none of it.

"There isn't much to move anyway," they argued. "Just rest for once, and get better."

The blonde had caught up on all of his work from school right away, and there were only so many things he could draw without getting burnt out. Needless to say, he was bored out of his mind. His friends came to see him occasionally, but they all had things they had to do. Sasuke kept him company a lot, but Naruto still wanted to go back to school. After almost two weeks of staying home, he finally convinced Iruka and Kakashi that he was well enough to go back. They only agreed when Sasuke told them that he would carry his books and things to class and keep an eye out for him.

* * *

"Arigatou gozaimasu," said Naruto as he hobbled through school on his crutches. Sasuke just smirked at him. "I'm not kidding at all! I was going crazy, just sitting there in the house all day!" He winced a little.

"Dobe, stop shouting. You're just putting yourself in more pain that way."

"Gomen, teme."

"Besides, it couldn't have been that bad," Sasuke said.

"Oh, but it was," replied Naruto. "I don't like to sit around all day and do nothing. I'm seriously just glad to be outside again. I never thought I would love going to school so much."

Right after he said that, Sakura came around the corner. "You're back!" she shouted. Of course, when their friends heard her shout, they all came to see what she was so excited about. They all greeted him and told him it was good to see him back at school.

As they talked, Naruto got the feeling that someone was watching him. He glanced around and saw Kabuto staring at him. Once he saw that Naruto noticed him, he looked away and disappeared around the corner. Naruto thought he was the only one to notice, until he saw Sasuke watching the spot that Kabuto had just vanished from. Sasuke and Naruto locked eyes, and Sasuke looked at Naruto in confusion. Naruto just shrugged as if to say "I have no clue."

* * *

The rest of the day went by relatively normal. Most of his teachers welcomed him back with open arms. They were shocked when they heard what had happened from Kakashi. Then, of course, there were the ones that sneered at him as if he deserved nothing less than getting the crap beat out of him. Naruto was sure they learned what had happened to him from someone other than Kakashi.

And then there was Kabuto. He acted completely indifferent about the whole thing, but when he looked at Naruto, the boy could see some dark emotion flash across his face. Before he could tell what it was, however, it was gone, just as fast as it had come.

Before Naruto knew it, the school day was over, and Iruka and Kakashi took him home.

* * *

Another week passed and Naruto told Iruka and Kakashi that he wanted to return to work that day.

"Naruto, I don't think you're ready for that," Iruka told him.

"I really want to go. Please! I'll take it easy, and I'll just be cooking: no cleaning, I promise. My ribs are halfway healed, too. They said six weeks, and its already been a little over three. And it's not that hard, honestly. All I have to do is whip some food up and then cook it or bake it," Naruto pleaded. "There are other people in the kitchen, too. If I need help they can do it, and if I can't handle it, I promise to come home immediately."

Kakashi and Iruka looked at each other. "…Fine. But one of us is going to drive you. And you have to call us when you need to come home so we can pick you up!"

"Alright, deal," agreed Naruto, knowing he would never get by with it if he tried to walk.

The blonde called the restaurant and told the boss he could work if they needed him. He told Naruto they could definitely use his help. He was a good cook and they people that frequented the restaurant could tell when he wasn't the one cooking. Of course, they didn't know who he was, otherwise they probably wouldn't eat there anymore. The boss had told Naruto many times that he had no problem with letting the customers know that he worked there, but Naruto told him to keep it a secret. He didn't want their restaurant to be boycotted because they allowed 'the demon' to work there. The only ones who knew he worked there were the boss (the owner/manager) and, obviously, the employees-none of them had any problem with him.

Kakashi drove Naruto to work, and he went in the back way. As soon as he walked in, he was bombarded with greetings and then gasps when they finally got a good look at him. He knew he must be a sight to see at this point: he still had a fairly large bruise on the side of his head, faint traces of the hand shaped bruises on his arms, and a cast and crutches-and that was just what they could see! He smiled at them and greeted them. They didn't have to ask what happened: they were sort of used to it by now. Though, admittedly, it had never been this bad.

"Hey, is the boss in his office?" asked Naruto.

"Un. He said to tell you to come on back," said Akira, one of the girls that worked there as a waitress.

"Okay, arigatou."

He headed back to the office and knocked on the door with the plaque that read 'Akimichi Chouza.'

"Come in," he heard and complied.

"Hey, boss," Naruto said while grinning.

"Hello, Naruto! It's good to have you back!"

"Arigatou. I promised Iruka-nii and Kakashi-sensei that I would only cook tonight, I hope that's okay," said Naruto.

"Oh, it's no problem!" he told him. "Besides, Umino-san called me after you left to tell me the deal." He smiled.

"Ugh! Of course he did," sighed Naruto.

"He means well. He only wants what's best for you," Chouza told him.

"I know," Naruto told him smiling a little. "Oh, you won't have to keep it from Chouji that I'm working here anymore, I guess. They already know I had two jobs."

"Had?"

"Iruka-nii and Kakashi-sensei made me quit working my other job and had me move in with them," he informed him.

"Good."

"Nani?" asked Naruto.

"We could all see that you were working yourself too much," Chouza told him. "I'm just glad that someone finally made you see sense."

"Well it's not like I could just ask someone to move in with them," replied Naruto.

"You should know that plenty of people would have been happy to help," Chouza said. "Look, I'm not trying to make you mad, but you should learn to let other people help you sometimes."

"…I know," Naruto told him, sighing.

"Good!" Chouza exclaimed. "Now, are you ready to cook?"

"Definitely!"

Naruto went out the door and to the employee room. He put on his apron, and limped to the kitchen. Everyone was waiting for him.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" he asked them. "Let's get cooking!" He winced. _I really have to stop doing that!_ he thought.

* * *

When he was done working, Naruto called Iruka.

"I'm done now, Iruka-nii," he told him once he picked up.

"I'll come get you right now. Okay, Naruto?"

"That's fine. Arigatou, Iruka-nii."

"No problem, Naruto," Iruka told the blonde.

When Iruka got there, Naruto told the other workers bye and went out the back door of the restaurant. As soon as Naruto got out of the door, Iruka was by his side to help him to the car. Inwardly, he laughed: Iruka was such a mother-hen.

After they got home, Naruto ate supper and did the small amount of homework he had. He decided to go to bed early, since he no longer had to worry about his second job. He hoped he wouldn't have nightmares again. He hadn't had any in the hospital or in the past three weeks, but he was sure that was only because the pain medicine was making him sleep so deeply. He figured he would have to face them again, sooner or later. Although he really hoped it would be later, he rarely had his wishes come true.

_He saw the 10-year-old Naruto come into his parent's room. He was standing off to the side. He watched as his younger self found his dad dead; his mom scared. Why was his dad dead? He couldn't remember. He tried looking around for the answer: he found he couldn't move his head. He tried harder as little Naruto ran out of the room. _

_He saw someone move in the corner of his eye. He tried to move his head again. This time his head did move, but only a few inches. He saw someone else bring the young Naruto back into the room and saw the dark figure move toward his mom. He watched as his mom was killed and his 10-year-old self struggled. He saw the blood. There was so much of it! It was disgusting! He screamed at the man to stop, but it was futile: they could not hear him. _

_The evil man looked up. Naruto could see that the man had long black hair and yellow, snake-like eyes that glowed in the darkness. _

_He saw the second man hold his young self still as the first man cut into his face, and then his stomach. There was blood running down his face and his stomach. Even though he knew they could not hear him, he screamed. The second man looked up at his partner: he had glasses and light hair. Naruto felt as if he knew the man from somewhere. _

_He watched, helplessly as the men dropped the young Naruto on the floor and tried to frame him for the murder by putting the knife in his small hands. He yelled at them to stop, that it wasn't fair. Why did this have to happen? The blood from his mother's corpse and the young Naruto's still alive body soaked the carpet. He heard the sirens that meant the police were coming: they were close._

_The two men heard them, and the man with the glasses said something to the other. They ran across the room and went out through the window in his parent's bedroom. The same one they had probably come in through. The window that his parents had always kept unlocked._

_He looked back at the 10-year-old him as the police and paramedics swarmed into the room. They checked him first and put him on a stretcher. Then they checked his mother: dead. They checked his father: dead. He had to watch as they put them into black body bags and carry them out of the house. _

_Why did that have to happen? Why? _

_And why wasn't he waking up? He didn't want to see this. He closed his eyes tightly… _**(2)**

Naruto heard someone open his door. He opened his eyes and sat up quickly. He gasped as his ribs burned. Iruka and Kakashi came running into his room.

"Naruto!" Iruka yelled. "What's wrong? We heard you scream!"

He realized that he was crying, sobbing, in fact. It hurt his ribs. Iruka wrapped his arms around the boy, and Kakashi sat on the other side of him. He cuddled into Iruka the most he could without hurting himself as he gasped and sobbed.

"Naruto? Were you dreaming about that night?" asked Kakashi gently. He nodded.

"There was so much blood…It was everywhere…And I saw _them _again."

"Your parents?" asked Kakashi, confused.

Naruto shook his head. "Iie…the men that murdered them," he whispered. "They laughed while they did it. They're disgusting."

Kakashi and Iruka locked eyes over Naruto head. "Naruto, what did these men look like?"

"It was so dark. I could only see part of them," Naruto said quietly. "The one had long black hair and…yellow eyes. His eyes…they looked like snake eyes. The other had glasses and light hair. That was all I could see. It was more than last time."

"Last time? You mean you've dreamed of them before?" asked Kakashi.

"Hai. I think it was over a month and a half ago," he told him.

"Naruto…Maybe we should tell the police what you saw," Kakashi told him.

"Why?" asked a confused Naruto.

"Maybe…maybe the dreams you're having are actually memories. If that's true, then maybe we could help catch them," Kakashi informed him.

"But we don't have any proof," said Naruto. "I mean, why would they believe me?"

"The police want to catch the people who did this. It may be a cold case, but trust me, they want the guys," Kakashi coaxed. "They might even want them enough to rely on your dreams for answers."

"Do you think it will help?" asked Naruto seriously.

"I think we should give it a chance."

"Then I'm in."

* * *

**(1)** Again, I have never had a broken leg or broken ribs, so I don't know how long it would take for them to heal. This is just what I found on the internet, so I'm sorry if it isn't correct. : )

**(2)** Just so we're clear, the 15-year-old Naruto is kind of like a ghost or something in the dream. He's seeing everything that's going on but they can't see him, hear him, feel him, etc…(basically, he's invisible and I kind of picture him like a ghost, all transparent and whatnot) Also, in the dream, when it says "he" its usually referring to the older Naruto. Sorry if it was hard to understand. : )

Because yesterday was Thanksgiving, you guys get two chapters. : )


	6. Matchmakers Of The Morning

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Sasuke wouldn't be all "My brother did everything he could to save Konoha, and since I feel reeeaaaaallllyyy guilty about killing him, I'm gonna destroy the village he **_**died **_**to protect, because I want revenge on the village elders since they made him kill our clan, because THE CLAN WAS TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE FLIPPING VILLAGE!" **-.-

**GAH! He's so infuriating! Jeez!**

**

* * *

**

"Naruto," Kakashi said on the way to school, "I talked to Sasuke's brother, Itachi, earlier this morning. He said that we could come in to the Police station after school to tell him what you saw."

"Alright."

"Just come to the car at the end of the day and Dolphin-chan and I will meet you here," Kakashi told him with a smile.

"Okay," Naruto agreed as Kakashi parked the car. He saw Sasuke waiting for him by the doors to the school. He waved as he got out of the car, with Iruka helping him. Sasuke waved back as he made his way over to them.

"Dobe," he said as a greeting.

"Teme," Naruto growled back jokingly.

"Let's go." He took Naruto's things and headed into school with Naruto following.

"Ne, Ruka-chan, don't you think Naruto and Sasuke would make such a cute couple?" Kakashi asked him sneakily.

"Nani? They would, wouldn't they?" Iruka took one look at Kakashi's face. "Iie, iie, iie! We are not playing matchmaker for them! Besides, we don't even know if either of them are gay."

"But why not, Ruka-chan? They would be cute together! Even you agreed with me! And trust me, those two are definitely gay," Kakashi replied as he smirked.

"Hai, but people should never play matchmaker. Something bad always happens when they do. Remember what happened with Hayate and Genma? And anyways, how would you know if they're gay?"

"Not always. And what's wrong with Hayate and Genma? They've been together for a long time!" Kakashi demanded. Iruka looked at him.

"Genma corrupted Hayate with his perverted ways!" Iruka told him fiercely. "And you didn't answer my question."

"What's wrong with that?" asked Kakashi in shock. "And I know they're gay because I have gaydar. You should have it too." Here he smirked. "Maybe you just don't want to admit it." Iruka smacked him.

* * *

Sasuke and Naruto headed from Japanese History to Chemistry. Naruto was excited: Anko had promised them that they would get to light their hands on fire in her class today! **(1)**

After Chemistry, they had Anatomy…With Kabuto…Nobody in their right mind looks forward to that class. **(2)** Naruto noticed that Kabuto sent him glances every now and then in his class. He almost seemed to be angry…or worried…or both. But who knows?

Naruto and Sasuke ate lunch with their friends like they had been doing for the past month or so. They sat at one of the tables in the corner so no one would bother them. And if someone wanted to bother them, they would see them coming.

Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and TenTen were pestering Naruto, trying to make sure he had everything he needed and wanted, making sure he was comfortable. They had done this since he came back to school after leaving the hospital.

"Kuso!" Kiba whispered. "Why don't they ever do that for us?"

"Because you can take care of yourself since you're not hurt!" Ino shouted at him. "Plus, Naruto is sweet, and you're just a jerk!"

"I find it ironic that the one guy getting all the attention from the girls is one of the few that definitely doesn't want it," said Gaara quietly as Kiba was getting yelled at by Ino.

"What do you mean?" asked Chouji. Gaara stayed silent.

"Naruto is _obviously _gay," stated Shikamaru. Kiba got back just in time to hear that.

"Nani? How do you know?" he asked.

"You can just tell," Shikamaru told him simply.

"What about you, Gaara? How did you know?" asked Neji interestedly.

"…Gaydar…" He replied. Kiba choked on the gulp of soda he just took. Neji looked slightly happier at this piece of news.

"Nani?" yelled Kiba.

"I hope you don't have a problem with that," Gaara said with a dark look.

"I-Iie! O-of course not!" he replied quickly.

"Good." They looked at Neji, shocked. "Nani?"

"You're gay too?" asked Kiba.

"Hai. Why?"

"N-no reason," said Kiba.

"What are you guys talked about?" asked Naruto after he escaped from the girls and hobbled over.

"Sexuality," Gaara told him.

"…O-okay then," he said with a blush.

"Is there anything you would like to tell us, Naruto?" asked Neji with a smirk.

"A-ano, well I-" stuttered Naruto.

"Un. Anything at all? Gaara and Neji just came out to us," said Kiba with a sly smile.

"I…" he started as he looked at them all, "Well, I'm gay."

"Really?" asked Sasuke. "Me too."

"Nani? Seriously?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded. The rest of the group just looked at each other and smiled. One step closer to their goal.

* * *

After school, Sasuke carried Naruto's stuff out to Kakashi's car, where they waited for Iruka and him to show up.

"Sasuke, Itachi wanted me to tell you to just ride with us since we're all going to the same place," Kakashi told him as he walked up with Iruka. "Your brother has to stay at the Police Station and that's where we're going."

"Why are you going there?" he asked Naruto.

"A-ano, we just have some things we need to talk with your brother about," Naruto told him somberly. Sasuke looked at him curiously, but he let it go.

"Alright."

"Well, let's get going," said Iruka.

When they got to the Police station, they went inside and Sasuke led them to Itachi's desk.

"Aniki." Itachi looked up.

"Otouto. Kakashi-san, Iruka-san, Naruto-kun." He nodded to them. "Sasuke, could you wait out here until we are done? Are you ready, Naruto-kun?" Sasuke looked confused.

Naruto took a deep breath. "Hai. Let's do it."

"What's going on?" Sasuke asked. Everyone looked at Naruto.

"I'll tell you later, Sasuke," Naruto told him. The blonde looked at Itachi, waiting for him to move so that Naruto could follow him.

"This way," Itachi told them.

"Naruto, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?" Iruka asked, concerned about him.

"Hai. It's the only way they can possibly be caught," Naruto told him.

"Okay, but only if you're sure."

"I am," he told Iruka.

Itachi looked back at them. "Deidara-chan and I will be interviewing you," he told Naruto.

They stopped at a room at the end of the hallway. Naruto asked Iruka and Kakashi to wait outside. He knew that Kakashi had almost been a son to his parents, and Iruka had been close to them, also: they did not need to hear this. Itachi and Naruto went into the room. There was a man with long blonde hair in a ponytail inside. He stood up to greet them.

"Hey, I'm Deidara. Nice to meet you, un," said the bubbly blonde.

"I'm Naruto," he told Deidara.

Itachi got the tape recorder set up and he and Deidara sat on the other side of the table.

"Alright…Please tell us everything you remember from the dreams," Itachi told him.

* * *

When Naruto was done, he followed Itachi and Deidara out of the room. He had told them everything he could remember, even anything that seemed unimportant. He hadn't cried, but he knew that if he didn't leave soon, he would.

"We will contact you if anything happens or if we have any leads. Please contact either Deidara or me if Naruto remembers anything else," Itachi told Kakashi and Iruka.

"Arigatou gozaimasu. We'll be sure to," Iruka said. "Naruto, are you ready to go?"

"Hai."

Kakashi and Iruka led Naruto out of the station. When they passed Sasuke, Naruto told him he'd talk to him tomorrow.

Once they got into the car, Iruka turned to Naruto.

"Are you okay?"

"Hai. I will be."

"Let's go home," Iruka said.

"I-I want to go to work," Naruto told them. "I want to get my mind off this."

"I don't think that-"

"Please!" Naruto pleaded.

"…Alright. Do you want us to drop you off on our way home?" Iruka asked.

"Hai, please," Naruto answered.

* * *

When Naruto got back from work, he went straight to his room and did his homework. Iruka and Kakashi tried to get him to eat, but he didn't think he would be able to stomach it, so he told them he would eat in the morning. That night, he cried himself to sleep, thinking of what his parents had had to go through. It just wasn't fair. Something like that shouldn't happen to good people: he didn't believe it should even happen to bad people. It was completely horrible, and he hoped the police would catch the ones responsible.

* * *

When Naruto awoke, he was partially glad and partially disappointed. He was glad that he hadn't had any nightmares for obvious reasons, but he was also disappointed because he wanted to remember something else to tell the police.

The blonde boy got ready, ate breakfast, and headed to school with Kakashi and Iruka. When they got there, Sasuke was waiting for him. He sighed. He knew he would have to tell Sasuke what had happened last night at the Police station. He knew Sasuke wouldn't make him, but he felt that Sasuke had a right to know.

Sasuke came over to get Naruto's backpack and walked slowly with Naruto to his locker. Before they got there, however, Naruto pulled Sasuke into the first bathroom he saw.

"Sasuke," Naruto began, "I'm going to tell you about why I was at the Police station last night."

"Naruto, you know you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"Iie," he began, "I want to. Trust me."

"Okay," Sasuke told him.

"You know about how my parents got killed, right?"

"Hai."

"Well then, you know that I couldn't remember anything about that night."

"Hai," Sasuke agreed.

"Well, I've been having these nightmares lately. We actually think they're memories. Anyways, I think-Iie, I know-that I've started to remember what happened that night." Sasuke's eyes widened. "I remember seeing my parents slaughtered in front of me…and I remember what they did to me…But I also remember things about them and things they did, things that might be useful. At least, I hope they can be useful. And Kakashi thought I should tell the police, because they might be able to do something. They might be able to find them and put them away."

"That's great, Naruto!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"I know. The only thing is, at this point, they don't have enough information to catch them, so I'm going to have to keep telling them everything I can remember from my nightmares."

"Isn't there any other way to find evidence the police can use to catch them?" asked Sasuke.

"Iie," Naruto told him. "They didn't leave fingerprints and there wouldn't be any evidence they could still use after all this time…If I could've just remembered sooner, maybe they would have caught them. There might have been something-"

"Iie," Sasuke cut him off.

"Nani?" Naruto asked in shock.

"It's not your fault, Naruto. You were ten years old! There isn't any kid in the world that wouldn't be too traumatized to talk after that! Besides, if there was some kind of evidence, they would have found it back then. _It's not your fault_," Sasuke told him.

"…Arigatou, Sasuke-teme."

"No problem, Naruto-dobe."

"Come on, we should probably get our stuff for class. We don't want to be late," Sasuke told Naruto.

"Alright. Let's go," agreed Naruto.

* * *

**(1)** We got to do this in Earth Science freshman year: it was so fun! I'm pretty sure we get to do it again in Chemistry this year. I'm excited! : )

**(2)** Nothing against anatomy or science of any kind! I just meant that nobody would look forward to a class with Kabuto!

Thank you, **P****agingDrSkankface**, for helping me with the first couple chapter names. You are awesome!


	7. Face The Facts

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

_Flashback/Dreams in Italics_

* * *

Two weeks passed before Naruto had any nightmares again.

It was after he got back from work and did his homework that he fell asleep. He had been getting a little anxious about not having any nightmares. On one hand, he had been sleeping well at night and hadn't been waking up scared. On the other hand, he was worried that he wouldn't be able to help find whoever killed his parents if he didn't find any other clues in his dreams. At this point, all Naruto wanted was to find the men that killed his parents: he couldn't do that if he didn't remember more.

_Hearing a scream, the little blonde boy woke up and ran down the hall. He peeked into his parent's room and saw his father, dead. He called out to his mom and dad. The evil man with the long hair and yellow eyes argued with his mother. She told him to run, and he did. _

_As he ran down the hall, he heard the man slap his mother. He slammed into another man: this one with short light hair and glasses. He struggled with the man, but the man overpowered him and took him back to his parent's bedroom. _

_He saw his mother slaughtered, and he screamed at the men. The creepy one with long hair sliced him up and they dropped him to the ground. The man with the glasses put the knife into his hand. They heard sirens._

"_-chimaru-sama…need…go," Naruto heard from the man with glasses. His voice sounded as if it were coming from a long tunnel._

_The men went through the window and got away._

Naruto woke up gasping for air. Once he caught his breath, he ripped off his covers and got out of his bed. He ran out of his room and into Kakashi and Iruka's. The blonde didn't even have time to hope that they were fully clothed.

"Iruka-nii!" he called out. Iruka woke with a start.

"Naruto? What's wrong?" he asked panicked.

"I think I just found out one of the men's names! Or at least part of it," Naruto told him, timidly. By this time, Kakashi had waken up.

"Nani? You mean you had another nightmare?" he asked, concerned.

"Hai."

"Write the name down so you don't forget it, and we'll call Itachi-san," Kakashi told him after looking at the clock. It was already six in the morning: he figured Itachi would already be awake, even if it _was _a Saturday.

* * *

Just as Itachi started drinking his coffee, the phone rang. He looked at the caller ID: it was Iruka and Kakashi's number.

"Moshi moshi."

"Itachi-san, Naruto had remembered a name," Kakashi told him. "Well, maybe part of one."

"What's the name?" asked Itachi, as Sasuke walked down the stairs, into the kitchen.

"C-h-i-m-a-r-u. Naruto told us that the man with the glasses called the other man this name and also called him -sama."

Itachi wrote the information down on a piece of paper.

"Arigatou," Itachi told him. "Tell Naruto this should help a great deal and he has my gratitude."

"I will," Kakashi informed him. "Ja ne."

"Ja mattane." Itachi hung up the phone.

"What was that about, aniki?" Sasuke asked him.

"Has Naruto told you why he was at the Police Station two weeks ago?" Itachi asked him.

"Hai. He told me the next day."

"Alright," Itachi said. "He remembered a name during a nightmare this morning."

"He had another nightmare?" asked Sasuke worried.

"Hai, but he should be fine. Kakashi told me this one wasn't as bad as the others."

Sasuke looked a bit better after he said that but Itachi could tell he was still concerned. Itachi almost smiled. He was glad his little brother was worried about someone: it showed he cared a great deal about them. It made him even happier to know that it was Naruto his brother cared about. Itachi liked Naruto.

* * *

Naruto spent the rest of his weekend working or hanging out with Sasuke. He guessed Itachi had told him that Naruto had had a nightmare because he came over a little later the same day. Not that the blonde minded, of course.

When Monday came, Kakashi and Iruka took him to school and he went to find Sasuke. He didn't have to look far, however, since Sasuke was putting his things into his locker.

"Sasuke-teme!"

"Naruto?" asked Sasuke as he turned around. "Why didn't you wait by the car for me? I would have been there soon. That way you wouldn't have had to carry your backpack by yourself."

"It's fine, Sasuke. I can carry it by myself: it's not _that_ heavy."

"I know, but you really should be taking it easy still," Sasuke told him.

"Don't worry!" he told Sasuke. "I'm getting this brace thing off in a week anyways."

"Yeah, but your leg still isn't healed all the way yet."

"…Touché," Naruto admitted. "But I can manage it just fine."

"I know you can, but I want to help," Sasuke told him.

"Alright," Naruto gave in. "Next time, I'll wait by the car."

"Arigatou."

"Let's go find everyone," Naruto suggested. "We can hang out before first period."

"Hn," Sasuke agreed.

It didn't take them long to find the others, seeing as they were all gathered around Naruto's locker waiting for him.

"So what did you guys do this weekend?" Sakura asked them right away.

"I worked and hung out with Sasuke," Naruto told them.

"I just hung out with Naruto most of the time," Sasuke added.

The group looked at each other and smiled while exchanging silent cries of victory. Naruto and Sasuke looked at them like they were crazy.

The bell rang and they all headed off to class in different directions. Naruto and Sasuke went in the direction of Mizuki's class where they got a surprise: there was a substitute teacher. He was a creepy looking man with long dark hair, brown eyes, and pale skin. He might have worn lipstick too, but it was hard to tell. He introduced himself as Shiore and told them he would be filling in for Mizuki until he was back from a "trip he had to take." That was how Shiore phrased it, but most of them knew where he had really gone: drug rehab.

Sasuke noticed that Naruto seemed to be really nervous and scared that hour. When Sasuke asked him why, Naruto just told him that the new teacher really creeped him out. The sub didn't seem to like Naruto much either. He kept glancing at him throughout the class period and giving him weird looks. Naruto just figured that Shiore was one of those people that still blamed him for what happened with his parents. That, or he had heard what happened from someone else that blamed him.

Sasuke noticed Shiore showing up frequently during the next week at school. He made sure to let the others in their group know, in case the teacher tried something. He was really suspicious, and Sasuke wasn't about to let Naruto get hurt by him.

* * *

At the end of the week, Naruto was able to get the brace taken off of his ribs and was told he could get his cast on his leg taken off in two weeks, on the condition that he wear a boot everywhere for the next two weeks after that. **(1) **He happily agreed and left with Iruka and Kakashi. He didn't have to work that night, so he called Sasuke to see if he wanted to hang out with him.

When Sasuke got there, they watched movies in Naruto's room and sat on his bed. Sasuke picked out The Grudge, knowing Naruto hated scary movies. As soon as the beginning titles came on, Naruto buried his head in Sasuke's shoulder.

"I hate scary movies," he whined. Sasuke grinned.

"I know," he told the blonde. "But you're cute when you cuddle."

Naruto looked at him in shock. "Nani?"

"Well it's true," Sasuke informed him.

"You think I'm cute?" he asked stunned.

"Hai, Naruto-dobe."

"Nani? But-!" he started.

"I like you, Naruto. A lot."

"Are you joking?" asked Naruto suspiciously. What if someone found out he liked Sasuke and they were playing a prank on him. He didn't believe Sasuke would ever do that, but he could be wrong.

"Iie! Why would you think that?" asked Sasuke.

"Well, because I'm…me," Naruto stated. "Why would anyone like me?"

"Because you're sweet, funny, independent, caring, passionate, beautiful, and you're you," Sasuke told him thoughtfully. Naruto was speechless…for a minute.

"But you could do so much better than me!" he told Sasuke.

"That's not true!" Sasuke exclaimed. "And besides, I don't want anyone else! I only like you!" Naruto could hear the sincerity in his voice.

"I…I like you too, Sasuke," Naruto told him tentatively. "I have for a while."

"Really?" Sasuke asked, looking excited.

"Really."

Sasuke visibly relaxed. He moved toward Naruto, and Naruto moved toward him. They touched lips for a brief moment, then pulled away. They looked at each other, and Sasuke moved to capture Naruto's lips again. He licked Naruto's bottom lip and he opened his mouth. Their tongues fought for dominance, and Sasuke's won. They moved in sync, and they were just getting into it, when Iruka walked in.

"Oh!" he squeaked. They broke apart.

"Ano, we were just-" Naruto started.

"Iie, that's fine! I get it!" Iruka exclaimed. Naruto looked down.

"You aren't mad, are you, Iruka-nii?" asked Naruto quietly.

"Iie! Of course not!" Iruka reassured him. "I was just a little shocked." Naruto looked relieved.

"Arigatou, Iruka-nii!"

"I just wanted to let you know that dinner was ready," Iruka told him. "I assume you'll be staying, Sasuke?"

"If that's okay with you and Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke said politely.

"Oh, of course! We'd love to have you," Iruka said as he walked out of the room.

"That went well." Naruto laughed.

"Hai, I thought he would be mad," Naruto told him.

"Why would he be mad about something like that?" Sasuke asked him.

"I don't know. I've never lived with anyone before, so I don't know what you are and aren't supposed to do in their house," Naruto defended.

"Well, he didn't care, so it's all fine." They sat there thinking for a while before Naruto spoke.

"What does this make us?" he asked shyly.

"I would say it makes us boyfriends," Sasuke answered. Naruto smiled at him to let him know he agreed.

Kakashi eye smiled at them when they walked downstairs.

"So, you're finally together?" he asked slyly.

"What do you mean 'finally'?" asked Naruto.

"Everyone could tell that you two liked each other. It was only a matter of time before one of you asked the other out," he explained. "I figured Sasuke would ask you." He smiled.

"What do you mean by 'everyone'?" asked Naruto. "And why would you figure that Sasuke would ask me?"

"Oh, just all of our friends and your friends," replied Kakashi calmly. "I figured Sasuke would ask you because he's liked you since-" Iruka cleared his throat loudly.

"Nani? What were you going to say?" asked Naruto.

"I wasn't going to say anything." Kakashi laughed nervously at the look Iruka was giving him. "Why would I say anything? There was nothing for me to say."

"He was just going to say that I've liked you since we were little," Sasuke said, shocking everyone. Naruto, because he didn't think Sasuke like him that long; Kakashi and Iruka, because they didn't actually think Sasuke would let Naruto know that.

"You have?" asked Naruto.

"Hai, but I believe we were going to eat dinner now." He looked pointedly at Iruka and Kakashi.

"Nani-oh yes! Dinner! Let's eat!" Iruka stammered.

Naruto looked at Sasuke in awe. He couldn't believe it!

"Naruto?" Iruka asked.

"Oh! Hai, I'm coming."

They all sat down and ate dinner together, and, afterwards, Sasuke and Naruto went back to his room and watched movies together. Naruto was happier than he had been in a long time.

* * *

**(1)** He has to wear a boot, as in a brace for your leg. Apparently that's what it's called…according to my sister. *shrugs shoulders*


	8. Goodnight Kiss? Not Happening

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, unfortunately.**

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke had been together for almost two weeks and everything was great…Except for their substitute teacher, Shiore. He was still creepy and still seemed to be following Naruto around during the school day. Naruto's friends thought he had been following Naruto after school too. But, of course, they had no proof of that. It could have just been a coincidence: however, none of them believed that.

Naruto had just gotten his cast off his leg and Iruka, Kakashi, and he were heading home. He didn't have to work tonight, and he had no homework, so Sasuke was taking him out to dinner. When they got home, Naruto went to change clothes and clean up a little. When he was done, he talked with Iruka and waited for Sasuke to get there. He knew it wouldn't be long: Sasuke was always on time. Sure enough, a few minutes later, he heard a knock on the door. He walked to the door and opened it smiling. Sasuke smiled back.

"Are you ready?" he asked Naruto.

"Un," replied Naruto happily.

"I'll have him back by eleven," Sasuke told Iruka and Kakashi.

"Alright."

Sasuke led Naruto out the door and they started walking. Neither had their license, so they couldn't drive, and they didn't want to have Itachi, Kakashi, or Iruka drive them. That would just be weird.

Sasuke took Naruto to the Akimichi's restaurant, and Naruto laughed.

"Nani?" asked Sasuke, hurt a little (not that he would ever admit to that). "Should we have gone somewhere else?"

"Iie, iie," Naruto told him reassuringly. "It's just that this is where I work."

"Ah," responded Sasuke. "And they treat you well, ne?"

"Hai, hai," he told him. "The owner and manager is Chouji's father. He's a very nice man."

"Good," Sasuke said with finality.

"Well, shall we?" Naruto asked in an amusing manner. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Let's go."

Once they got inside, they were seated and waited on. They ordered and talked until their food came.

When they were done, Sasuke paid, much to the disdain of Naruto. He thought that he should pay for his food, but Sasuke shot him down by basically telling him that the blonde was the girl in the relationship. Naruto really couldn't argue with that, so Sasuke won.

As they walked home, they discussed a lot of things: some important, others not so much.

They didn't notice a pair of yellow eyes watching them until it was too late.

As they were walking past a side street, someone reached out and grabbed Sasuke. Sasuke was pulled away, and Naruto went after him. When the blonde stepped into the alleyway, he froze.

There was a man wearing a mask.

That man was standing behind Sasuke.

And that man had a knife to Sasuke's throat.

A very sharp knife.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked him. Naruto thought he was pretty brave, considering he had a knife to his throat at the time.

"What do I want?" asked the man in a raspy voice.

Naruto's eyes widened in horror and he backed up to the wall. The man noticed this.

"Oh, is little Naruto scared?" he mocked.

"How do you know his name?" Sasuke asked angrily. The man just smirked.

"You didn't expect to see me again, did you, Na-ru-to?" The man asked then laughed.

Naruto slid down the wall with wide eyes. Eyes filled with complete and utter terror.

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

"He probably can't even hear you right now," the man told Sasuke. "He's too caught up in his fear."

"Who are you?" demanded Sasuke.

"Ah, ah, ah! You aren't in the position to be demanding answers, are you?" he asked Sasuke venomously. "But I will answer your question: I am the one who killed your little boyfriend's parents."

Sasuke felt his eyes widen in shock.

"What do you want with him?" asked Sasuke protectively.

"Didn't I just tell you not to question me?" hissed the man. He dug the knife into Sasuke's neck, just enough to draw blood. Sasuke flinched, and the man started moving toward Naruto while pulling Sasuke with him.

"Stay away from him!" Sasuke yelled at the crazy man.

In response, the man cut Sasuke's arm. Sasuke cried out, and Naruto looked up.

"Stop! Please!"

The man looked at Naruto.

"Oh, you don't like it when I hurt Sasuke? Too bad you won't do anything about it!" he yelled as he cut Sasuke's arm again.

"Iie! Stop!" screamed Naruto.

"If you want me to stop, do something about it!" the man screamed back. "You won't! Just like you didn't do anything to stop me from chopping up mommy or daddy!" He looked at the blonde with a crazy gleam in his eye. Sasuke screamed at the man to stop taunting Naruto.

Naruto's eyes started to water. "Stop, please," he whispered as another man came running around the corner.

"You! Let go of that boy! The police are on their way!" he shouted.

"Kuso!" the crazy man yelled. Naruto almost cried he was so happy. The man dropped Sasuke to the ground and ran. As he went past Naruto, he slashed him across his upper left arm and chest. He ran out of the alley and went left.

"Naruto!" he looked up to see Sasuke looking at him worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine. He didn't cut me that badly," Naruto told him reassuringly. "Although…I do feel a little…"

"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted as the blonde boy passed out. The man that helped then ran over to them.

"The police should be here soon," he told Sasuke as the teenager pulled Naruto's head into his lap. "I told them to send an ambulance, just in case."

"Arigatou gozaimasu," he told the man sincerely.

They heard the sirens steadily getting closer. The man went to the mouth of the alley to show the police where to go.

When they got there, the paramedics gathered Naruto and him into the back of an ambulance. Sasuke had insisted he go with Naruto since he wasn't badly hurt: he only had a small cut on his neck and a shallow one on his arm. Instead of arguing with the teen, the paramedics allowed him to ride with Naruto.

When they got to the hospital, Naruto was taken to a patient room and Sasuke went to the waiting room to make a few phone calls. They had checked Sasuke and Naruto out in the ambulance on the way there and found out that Sasuke didn't need any stitches, so they just wrapped bandages around his arm and neck. Naruto, they said, might need stitches. They also said that he most likely passed out from shock, so there was nothing to worry about there.

Sasuke first called Kakashi and Iruka, figuring they should know before anyone else.

"What do you mean 'Naruto's in the hospital'?" screamed Iruka. "What the hell happened?"

Sasuke was shocked. He had never heard the sweet man curse before. Apparently, when Naruto's safety was questioned, he wasn't so sweet anymore.

He couldn't really understand what Iruka was yelling about anymore, so he was glad when he heard Kakashi take the phone.

"Sorry about that," Kakashi told him. "Now what's this about Naruto being in the hospital?" He heard Kakashi's voice harden.

"We were attacked by the man who killed Naruto's parents," Sasuke told him. He heard Kakashi's intake of breath on the other end.

"Is he alright?" Kakashi asked, uncharacteristically serious.

"He might need a few stitches, but he'll be fine," Sasuke told him calmly. "He passed out, but the doctors informed me that it was just from shock. They said he'll probably wake up in about an hour or so. I just thought you both should know and be here when he wakes up."

"Hai, we'll be there in ten minutes."

"Alright." He hung up and dialed his brother's number.

"Itachi," he said once his brother picked up.

"Sasuke? Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Itachi, you should come down to the hospital," he told him. "Naruto and I were attacked by the man that killed Naruto's parents."

"Nani? Are you both alright?" he asked, worried. Sasuke heard another voice on Itachi's end ask what was wrong.

"Hai. Naruto may need stitches, and I am fine."

"Deidara and I will be there soon."

_That explains it_, thought Sasuke. Of course Deidara was at their house.

"Alright. Ja mattane."

"Ja mattane," Itachi said.

Now all that was left to do was wait. Sasuke sat down on one of the uncomfortable, hard waiting room chairs.

* * *

When Kakashi and Iruka got there, Iruka practically bombarded him with questions. It was as if he had to hear everything Kakashi told him from the source. Sasuke was patient, and after answering all his questions, he took him and Kakashi to Naruto's room. He left them there, telling them he had to wait for his brother to get there.

He only had to wait in the waiting room for a couple minutes before His brother strolled in, followed by Deidara. He told them what happened after assuring Itachi that he was fine. He led them to Naruto's room and they talked with Iruka and Kakashi while Sasuke sat with Naruto. Soon after, a doctor came in and told them that Naruto hadn't needed stitches and he would wake up soon. They had also checked his leg out, since they were already at the hospital anyway. The doctors decided it would be fine for him to quit wearing the boot because his leg was completely healed.

Naruto started to wake up and say something. Sasuke leaned in closer to hear him.

"Not Sasuke…don't hurt him…" he whispered brokenly.

"Don't worry, Naruto," he told him gently. "Everything's okay. You're safe. We're both safe now."

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked opening his eyes. He looked confused.

"Hai," he answered.

"You're alright!" yelled Naruto.

"Of course I am, dobe."

"Well, excuse me for being worried about you!" The whiskered boy stuck his tongue out.

"_You _were worried about _me_? You were the one that passed out!" Sasuke told him.

"Un, but I only passed out because I was shocked that he didn't kill either of us!" Naruto yelled at him.

"Well you didn't have to pass out because of it!" shouted Sasuke, forgetting that they had an audience.

"Well, gomen!" shouted Naruto. "Why are you so mad anyway?"

"Because I was scared!" shouted Sasuke. "I thought that something went wrong, and you wouldn't wake up!"

Everyone's eyes widened. Naruto's eyes almost popped out of his head: he was speechless. Itachi and Deidara were shocked: they had never, ever heard Sasuke admit that he was scared. Never, in a million years, would they have thought that Sasuke would tell someone he was scared for them.

"Nani?" asked Naruto, finally getting his voice back.

"We'll just be going now," Deidara said grabbing Iruka and Kakashi by the arm and walking out the door. Itachi followed soon after, closing the door behind him.

"You were scared? For _me_?" asked a thoroughly shocked Naruto.

"Of course I was scared! How could I not be?" shouted an exasperated Sasuke.

"I don't know! I figured you would be mad that you got hurt because of me," Naruto told him quietly. "Most people would have been."

"Well I'm not most people," Sasuke told him. "That should be pretty obvious to you by now."

"Sasuke…arigatou…for not being mad.," Naruto told him solemnly.

"Dobe, you don't have to thank me for something like that," he told the blonde sadly. "Besides, it was my fault I got hurt. I was the one yelling at him even though he had a knife held to my throat."

"Yeah, I do have to admit, that was pretty stupid," Naruto told him smiling a little.

"Well he was pissing me off!" Sasuke told him defensively. Naruto laughed.

"Do you think we should tell the others they can come back now?"

"Un, I'll go tell them, and then we can get you checked out of here," Sasuke told him.

"Yatta!"

"You really do hate hospitals, don't you?" Sasuke asked him.

"Hai!" Naruto answered quickly.

"Alright then, I'll go tell them." He leaned down and kissed Naruto on the lips before going to open the door. When he opened it, however, four adults fell into the room.

Kakashi laughed nervously.

"Run," Deidara told them all wisely. All four took off running down the hall with Sasuke glaring after them. They weren't going to chance the possibility that he _might _forgive them.


	9. A Hero's Death

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. : (**

_Dreams/Flashbacks in Italics_

* * *

It was almost a week after the incident with Naruto's parent's murderer that Naruto had another nightmare.

_He leapt out of his bed and walked down the hall to his parent's room. He had heard someone screaming. He peeked through the door and saw a man with a knife standing over his fathers body. _

"_Tou-san? Kaa-san?" he asked fearfully._

_As his mom started toward him, the man yelled at her to stop. She screamed at the man and yelled at Naruto to run._

_As the man started toward him, he ran out the door and down the hall. He was caught by another man and brought back to the room. He saw his mom murdered, and as the man turned to Naruto, he saw his face. _

_Pale skin, yellow snake eyes with purple around them, black hair. _

_The man came toward him with the knife raised. He cut into his face and stomach. They placed the knife in Naruto's hands as they heard sirens. _

"_Orochimaru-sama, we need to go," the man with short hair said. The voice sounded familiar._

_As Naruto lost consciousness, he saw the men get out through the window. And then everything faded to black._

Naruto woke up gasping for air with wide eyes. He turned on the light, ran to the desk Iruka and Kakashi had put in his room, and grabbed his sketch pad and pencils. He wrote the name 'Orochimaru' at the top of the page and started to draw. It took him roughly half an hour to finish. He looked at the clock and found it was only three in the morning. Glad it was Saturday, he went to Iruka and Kakashi's bedroom and knocked on the door. Iruka opened it looking half asleep.

"Naruto? What's wrong?" asked Iruka concerned.

"I…I know who my parent's killer is. I mean, I know what one of them looks like. And I know his name," Naruto told him shakily.

"Na-nani?" said a surprised Iruka.

Naruto held up the picture as Kakashi came up behind Iruka.

"Orochimaru," he spat.

"You know him?" asked Naruto shocked.

"Hai. He's a wanted felon. He's killed too many people to count, caused major gang wars, and is in control of drug and weapon trafficking across the world. I wouldn't be surprised one bit if he was in control of a human trafficking ring somewhere also," Kakashi informed them.

"Why would he have killed my parents, though?" asked Naruto tearfully. "They weren't involved in _anything _like that!"

"I know that. That was one of the problems he had with Minato-san."

"What are you talking about?" Iruka asked him.

"Your tou-san," he started, looking at Naruto, "was the leader of this village. He kept Orochimaru from bringing that kind of thing here, to Konoha. At least, he tried his best to, and he succeeded for the most part. But, the thing is, a lot of government officials are corrupt. Many of them supported Orochimaru and enabled him to keep his little underground businesses going. Your tou-san didn't: he did everything in his power to keep Orochimaru from tainting this village. He loved this village and the people in it. Especially your kaa-san and you."

Naruto had tears in his eyes. "Why did it have to be him?" he asked sadly. "And my kaa-san?"

Iruka hugged him tightly. "Bad things happen to good people, Naruto. There's never a reason for it. It just happens," Iruka told him. He didn't know how to comfort the boy.

"We should get this to Itachi-san," Naruto told them, his voice muffled by Iruka's clothes.

"Alright. I don't think he would mind if we showed up this early with information like this." Iruka looked at the clock. "Even though it _is _a little after three in the morning."

All three threw on some shoes and headed out the door. They made it to the Uchiha's house quickly and knocked on the door. Itachi answered it looking like he hadn't even fallen asleep yet.

"What is it?" he asked them politely. If he was surprised, he didn't show it.

Naruto presented the sketch to him and said, "This is the man that killed my parents."

Itachi looked at him closely. "Are you absolutely sure?" he asked seriously.

"Hai."

"Kuso." They looked at him shocked. "It's going to be next to impossible to catch this teme," he explained as he ushered them inside. "He has hidey holes all over the globe and nearly infinite resources."

"But…You _will_ find him, right?" asked a worried Iruka as they took off their shoes at the entrance..

"We will try our best. We may have to take precautionary measures, though," Itachi told them calmly while leading them to the living room.

"What kind of precautionary measures?" asked Iruka seriously.

"We may need to put Naruto into protective custody for a while," Itachi told them. "The only problem is, we would need to have a reason."

"What do you _mean_ a reason?" asked Iruka outraged.

"I just mean that at this point, in the eyes of the law, we have no reason to place him in protective custody. Orochimaru hasn't made a clear threat, and we don't have enough evidence to prove that he was attacked by Orochimaru a week ago," Itachi explained calmly, as Kakashi calmed Iruka down.

By this point, Naruto was getting extremely tired: the excitement brought on by finding out who killed his parent's was finally wearing off.

"Naruto, if you like, you may go sleep in Sasuke's room," he told the blonde kindly. "We have a lot to talk about, so it might be a while."

"Hai, I think I will," Naruto told them tiredly. "Arigatou, Itachi-san. Oyasumi nasai, Ruka-nii, Kaka-sensei."

"You're welcome, Naruto," Itachi told him.

"Oyasumi nasai, Naruto," Kakashi and Iruka told him.

Naruto slowly went up the stairs and traveled down the hall to Sasuke's room. On the way, he passed Deidara, who was exiting a room.

"Naruto-kun?"

"Deidara-san? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked confusedly.

"Ano…living?" In Naruto's sleep addled state, he didn't even question it. "What are you doing here?"

"Sleeping," he replied shortly.

"O…kay?" Deidara let it go. "I guess I'll see you later, then."

"Hai, hai," he agreed sleepily.

Naruto ambled down the hall, slowly, and opened Sasuke's door. He stumbled to the bed and crawled in beside Sasuke. It was pure bliss. The comforter was warm and soft. The pillows were big and fluffy. He curled up into Sasuke's side and fell asleep faster than he had in a long, long time.

* * *

Meanwhile, downstairs the adults were conversing.

"I know this isn't what you want to hear, but Orochimaru is a very dangerous individual. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He's ruthless, and he has no morals. I think that maybe you should all stay here for a while. We can't get Naruto protective custody yet, and we can't wait around for something else to happen to him. We can't rule out that Orochimaru won't attack you two either. What better way to keep you all safe, than to have you stay with two cops?" explained Itachi.

"Two cops?" Iruka asked confused as Deidara walked into the room.

"Hai," Itachi told them, "Deidara lives here too." He said this with a small smile. Kakashi and Iruka understood immediately.

"We'll still have to go to school though. I mean, Kakashi and I work there. We can't lose our jobs," Iruka told them. "And Naruto has to continue going to school. Unless you think it's too dangerous."

"Iie," Itachi answered after a brief pause. "I think it will be fine for you to return to work and Naruto, to school. If there is so much as a hint of a threat, though, we will be taking all three of you out. You can teach Naruto here, and I'm sure Tsunade-sama won't take away your jobs for something this important. Especially seeing as it involves keeping Naruto safe."

"Alright," Kakashi and Iruka agreed.

* * *

When Sasuke awoke in the morning, he felt warm. Warmer than he usually was. One look to his left showed him why.

Naruto was curled up by his side with his head on Sasuke's chest. He was absolutely adorable when he slept. His face was so peaceful, like he didn't have a care in the world. Sasuke wished it could be that way. He wished Naruto didn't have to deal with any of the crap he went through every day.

Then Sasuke began to wonder why Naruto was by his side in the first place. When did he get there? How did he get there, for that matter? As he pondered, Naruto started to open his eyes. He yawned, sat up, and stretched, loving the feeling of his joints popping and his bones cracking. _That was probably the best sleep I've ever had,_ Naruto thought. He glanced to his right and saw Sasuke. He nearly jumped a foot in the air.

"Na-nani?" the blonde exclaimed, confused.

"Well hello to you too," Sasuke teased.

"How did I get here?" Naruto asked.

"I was hoping you could answer that for me," Sasuke told him. "I just woke up and you were here. Not that I'm not grateful," he reassured Naruto, "I was just surprised."

"I don't remember coming into your room. Of course, I was dead tired, so that's understandable," Naruto told him.

"But you remember coming to my house, right?" asked Sasuke, concerned.

"Hai," he answered slowly. "Oh! I remember!" he exclaimed, snapping. "I had another dream, and I found out who killed my parents, so I told Ruka-nii and Kaka-sensei and we came straight here."

"Are you okay, Naruto?" asked Sasuke gently.

"Hai," Naruto replied. "I should probably go find out where Ruka-nii and Kaka-sensei went." The blonde slowly climbed out of bed and walked to the door.

"I'll go with you," Sasuke told him. He followed him out the door and down the hall. When they got to the kitchen, they found Itachi and Deidara talking over breakfast. They noticed Naruto and Sasuke and ended their conversation.

"Naruto-kun, Kakashi-san and Iruka-san are in one of the spare bedrooms upstairs," he told the blonde.

"Arigatou, Itachi-san," Naruto said to him.

"It's no problem, Naruto-kun," Itachi told him. "Would you like to hear the plan we came up with last night?"

"Hai, please."

"Well, because there isn't enough evidence to prove that Orochimaru is after you again, we cannot get you protective custody. However, there are a large number of officers on the force that would be glad to protect you. You, along with Kakashi-san and Iruka-san will be living here until this is all sorted out. That way, there will be at least two officers with you at all times, and we can have some others from the force stay here to strengthen our defenses," Itachi explained.

"Do you think it would be safer for everyone…if I would just…go away for a while?" Naruto asked solemnly.

"Nani?" asked Sasuke. "Why would you ask that?"

"I don't want anyone getting hurt because of me!" Naruto argued. "You were already attacked! What if it happens again. What if, this time, something worse happens and no one's there to save us? I couldn't live with myself if something happened to one of my precious people because some crazy guy was after me!"

"Naruto-kun," Itachi cut in, "you should know that we all just want to keep you safe. We don't want anything to happen to you. If you 'go away' something _will _happen. We won't be able to protect you from him."

"But someone could get hurt-" Naruto started to say.

"We can take care of ourselves, and we will protect your precious people, no matter what. That's our job," Deidara explained.

"I just don't want anyone to get hurt," Naruto told them sadly. "Especially not because of me."

"We understand, but sometimes you need to let others take care of the problems," Sasuke told him. "Let others take care of you for once."

"Okay," Naruto whispered after a long pause. "I'll go along with it."

"Arigatou, Naruto," Sasuke told him. He was happy that Naruto accepted. He didn't want his blonde to get hurt because he was too worried about other people. He knew that everyone else who knew and loved the blonde boy felt the same.

"We _will _catch this guy, Naruto-kun," Deidara told him seriously. "So don't worry."

"I hope so," replied Naruto.


	10. Bugs Are Dreadful

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. **

* * *

Everything was normal, and nothing bad had happened since the incident with the killer. Consequentially, they were all starting to get a little nervous. They had no idea why Orochimaru hadn't made a single move in the three weeks since the attack. Did he not know where Naruto was? And if so, how long would it be before he found him?

"Maybe he's given up," Naruto said hopefully one night when he and Sasuke were discussing possible scenarios. He knew that it was completely ludicrous to think that Orochimaru would give up on killing him. He knew that once Orochimaru knew what he wanted, he would stop at nothing to attain it.

"I wish," stated Sasuke unhappily. Why on earth did it have to be Naruto? Why would a person want to kill someone as sweet and innocent as Naruto? What had he done to deserve this? Unfortunately, no one had an answer for those questions.

"I'm gong crazy just thinking about why he hasn't made his move yet!" Naruto exclaimed. "Why can't he just do something and get it over with?"

"Don't say that, dobe!" Sasuke reprimanded him. "Do you want him to kill you?"

"No! Of course not!" Naruto argued. "I'm just tired of not knowing what's going to happen! I just want this to end! I'm tired of living in fear that someone will be hurt."

"If anyone is going to be hurt, it's him," Sasuke told him reassuringly.

"I hope so," was Naruto's simple reply. He, already sitting in Sasuke's bed, crawled over to lay next to Sasuke. Sasuke laid down too after turning off the lamp on the bedside table.

"Oyasumi nasai," Naruto told him tiredly.

"Oyasumi nasai," Sasuke said back. Both teenagers were asleep within minutes.

_Little Naruto went to his parent's room. He saw his father, dead, in his parent's bed, and he ran when his mother told him to. When he went down the hall, he was caught and brought back. Then he saw his father's killer. The murderer slaughtered his mother, and he cut Naruto up and tried to frame him. He heard the short haired man tell the other they needed to go._

_That voice! He definitely knew it from somewhere. The answer was just beyond his reach._

_The men ran to the open window. Orochimaru slipped out and the second man followed. Just as he was about to jump out the window, however, he turned. Naruto knew that face! He had to see it every day. Well every day he went to school, that is. He needed to tell Itachi!_

Naruto woke up and sat straight up in bed. He turned to Sasuke and lightly nudged him awake.

"Sasuke," he whispered.

"Nani?" he asked sleepily.

"Can you show me where Itachi's room is?" asked Naruto.

"Nani?" he asked, now completely awake. "Why?" he asked, confused.

"I had another dream, and I need to tell him who the other man was," Naruto told him. He was surprisingly calm.

Sasuke's eyes widened. "Nani?"

"Hai," Naruto told him. "We should go tell your aniki."

"Hai," said Sasuke.

Sasuke got out of bed and told Naruto to follow him. When they reached Itachi's bedroom door, Sasuke knocked. There was no way in hell he was going to risk seeing Itachi and Deidara doing anything. After Sasuke repeated his actions, Itachi answered his door. Upon seeing Naruto, he seemed to understand.

"Dream?" he asked.

"Hai," answered Naruto. "I know who Orochimaru's accomplice is."

"Nani? Who?" asked Itachi, stepping into the hallway and closing his door.

"…Yakushi Kabuto," he told them. Sasuke's eyes widened: he was shocked. He had never liked the man, but who would have thought he would be in alliance with a killer.

"Hmm…We _could _arrest him and hold him for up to 48 hours without any proof, but after that, we would need some kind of incriminating evidence. We need something to use against him," Itachi thought out loud.

"What if I confronted him about it and got him to confess?" asked Naruto somewhat hesitantly.

Itachi eyed him speculatively. "That could work if we give you a wire, but I don't want to take any unnecessary risks. We won't do anything that could put you at risk, Naruto."

"What if it's the only way?" he asked.

"We will do our best to make sure there is another way," Itachi reassured him. "At this point, I think our best bet is to keep pretending everything is normal. If he doesn't know we are after him, we could follow him and see if there is anything we can use against him. He might even meet up with Orochimaru. If that happens, we will arrest them both and worry about evidence later: there's no telling when we could get a better chance to find that snake teme."

"What if there is nothing to tie him to the murders?" asked Naruto. Sasuke, who had been standing by Naruto the whole time, looked at Itachi to await his answer.

"There is always something," Itachi answered mysteriously. Naruto looked at him skeptically. "Well then," Itachi started, "I guess you can both head back to bed now. I will inform one of the police force to watch Kabuto's every move from now on."

"Arigatou, Itachi-san," Naruto told him.

"It is no problem, Naruto," Itachi told him.

Naruto turned toward Sasuke and they headed off to his room. Itachi, instead of going back into his bedroom, headed down the hall into his office. He grabbed his phone and called Sasori. He told him to keep an eye on Kabuto and to find anything he could about the guy. Sasori was an expert on concealing himself, so it would be a piece of cake for him to go undercover and spy on Kabuto. He, himself, was also going to be digging for dirt on Yakushi Kabuto. He would find some way to catch this guy. With that, he began his search.

* * *

When Naruto and Sasuke woke up the next morning, they headed down to breakfast. It was a Sunday, so they didn't have to worry about school. When they got downstairs, Kakashi and Iruka were also awake. The two teachers told them that Itachi and Deidara were at work and wouldn't be back until pretty late. They had a new lead, therefore, everyone would be following it.

When Itachi did get back, he came with good news. "It seems Kabuto knows nothing of our plans. He isn't aware that Naruto knows he was Orochimaru's accomplice. Hopefully, this will make it easier to catch them both."

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. He stopped. Now that he actually sat down and thought about it…The dreams he had been having seemed to be connected with the attacks. When he was attacked by the Sound Four, they had said something about being paid by somebody to do it. And that had been after his first bad dream…Almost every time he had been attacked, it had been after he had a dream about Orochimaru and Kabuto.

Was it possible that they knew, somehow? And if so, how did they know? The only ones that he told about his dreams were Kakashi, Iruka, Sasuke, and the police force. He immediately ruled out Itachi and Iruka. They would never do anything to hurt him. He could rule out Sasuke too: there was no way that he had faked all his feelings about Naruto-he would have noticed.

That left the police force. Itachi told him that they wanted to catch the guy. There was not a single person on the force that would betray Naruto. Every last one of them would do anything to catch the murderers.

Naruto didn't know what to think. He didn't know of any other way that Kabuto and Orochimaru could have known what he had been dreaming about. He looked up with the intent of asking Itachi about it. Everyone was looking at him.

"What?" he asked them, nervous.

"You just spaced out for almost five minutes," Sasuke told him slowly.

Naruto laughed embarrassedly. "Ano…Itachi-san, is there any way that Orochimaru could have found out about my nightmares?"

"Nani? Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was thinking just now: it seems as if every time I get attacked, it corresponds to when I have my dreams," Naruto told him and added the part about the Sound Four.

"I know for a fact that none of the officers working on this case would have spilled any information. Most of them have their own personal vendettas against Orochimaru. They would not betray you," Itachi told him seriously.

"I didn't think they would, but I don't know how else they would have found out," Naruto told him honestly. A look of enlightenment came upon Itachi's face.

"Bugs. That teme bugged your house. I have no doubt he also installed cameras," Itachi told him. "But then he wouldn't know about you finding out his identity," he thought to himself. "Unless he hid them in or on something of yours…Did you move all of your furniture into Iruka-san and Kakashi-san's house?" he asked turning to Naruto.

"Hai."

"All of your things are still at their house then, besides your clothes, right?" Itachi asked him.

"Hai," he answered. "I only brought my clothes, my school things, and my art supplies."

"Then the bug would have to be on something that you didn't move here, because Kabuto has no idea that we know it was him, but Orochimaru knows that you know he was the murderer," Itachi told him.

"Should we try to find it?" asked Kakashi. Itachi thought for a moment.

"That's the problem. I'm sure he knows that you three aren't living there at the moment, so he isn't expecting to hear or see anything from you, Naruto. However, he could have assumed that you knew there was a video camera in your room and that's why you left…He could also assume that you left because the police knew you weren't safe anymore…I think, at this point, it would be better to leave it be. If we go find it, he'll know you know it's there. If we don't, he will assume that you just moved out as a precaution," Itachi explained to them.

"What about Kabuto? Is there any way to arrest him and keep him in jail?" Iruka asked worriedly.

"We could always…talk…to the Sound Four," Itachi said. "We are certain he hired them to attack Naruto, and if we can get them to talk, we can put him away. That way we will only have to worry about Orochimaru."

"I should call Pain and Konan, un?" Deidara asked.

"Hai," Itachi consented. "Have Pein and Konan get the their addresses from the school and pick them up."

"Un."

* * *

It was late Sunday night when Itachi got news from Pein and Konan. The four teens had cracked quickly. None of them wanted to spend time in jail, so they spilled. They told the two officers that Kabuto had paid them to beat the shit out of Naruto and keep quiet about it. They never thought the police would get involved, they said; they just figured Kabuto hated Naruto and wanted him to pay.

They had enough evidence to put Kabuto away, so the two officers rushed to his house and arrested him. He had tried to get away, but the two were more than enough to handle him.

Pein and Konan attempted to make him hand over Orochimaru, but he wouldn't. They bribed, and they threatened, but they couldn't get him to talk. Nevertheless, they were farther along in the case than anyone else had ever been.

Naruto was happy he wouldn't have to face Kabuto at school the next day. He didn't think he would have been able to look into the eyes of the one who helped kill his parents.

* * *

**I decided to gve you two chapters! :) So, Happy Nondenominational Holiday! ...I think that's what it is...hopefully...if not, sorry! How about, just because I'm on winter break, you get two chapters! Yeah!**

**And guess what? There's only one more chapter left! Kinda happy and kinda sad...**


	11. How Far Would a Person Go?

**Warning: Yaoi, OOC, possible cursing, possible violence, possible gore (it all depends on which chapter you're on and I don't feel like re-doing it for every one, sorry)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

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* * *

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When Naruto woke up the next morning, a smile quickly formed on his face. He remembered that Kabuto had been caught, and Orochimaru was nowhere to be found. He glanced over and saw Sasuke, awake and looking at him.

"Nani?" the blonde asked him, confused.

"Nothing. You just look beautiful when you smile," he told him, grinning. Naruto blushed bright red. He was about to respond when someone knocked on the door.

"Sasuke, Naruto, you should get ready now," came Itachi's voice from behind the door.

"Go away!" shouted Sasuke. "…I guess he's right, though," he conceded.

Once the two showered and got ready, they headed downstairs. Itachi informed them that Iruka and Kakashi would be driving them to school. Undercover cops would follow them from a distance to make sure nothing happened to any of them. They all ate breakfast and then left. As they left, however, Naruto got a foreboding feeling. He felt as if something bad would happen that day.

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke got to school, went inside, and greeted their friends. As the headed to Japanese III that foreboding feeling got a little worse. He stepped into the room with Sasuke. The room was mostly empty seeing as most students waited until about thirty seconds before the bell to actually go to class. The two boys took their seats and waited, passing the time with conversation. Before they knew it, the classroom had filled up.

Naruto looked at the clock and noticed that there were only a couple seconds until the bell would ring, but their teacher still wasn't there. He shrugged it off and looked back at Sasuke. They talked as they waited.

After almost ten minutes, Sasuke saw Naruto glance over his shoulder at the doorway, his eyes widened considerably. Sasuke looked back and saw Shiore. He was half out of his chair when Shiore pointed the knife at him.

"Don't move," he whispered dangerously. The class looked at him with large eyes.

"N-nani? What are you doing, Shiore-san?" asked one girl, terrified.

"What I should have done a long time ago," he hissed at her.

"Naruto-kun," he crooned in a raspy voice. Naruto gasped. He stood up and backed away with pure terror on his face. The class looked on in confusion. **(1)**

"What are you doing here?" yelled Sasuke.

"I came to finish him!" hissed Orochimaru, stabbing the knife in Naruto's direction.

"You won't hurt him!" Sasuke screamed as Shiore used his sleeve and wiped off the foundation covering his face to reveal pale white skin. He took out brown contacts and reached up to pull off a wig of brown hair. Standing before them was Orochimaru, in the flesh. There was no use hiding his identity anymore, not when he was finally going to finish the boy, and he had gotten past the cameras. They class gasped.

"Oh, contraire," he sneered. "I will kill that boy today!" he screamed with a depraved look on his face. The students started to back into the corner. "Come here, Naruto-kun."

Naruto shook his head, too terrified to speak. "He won't be going anywhere with you," Sasuke answered for him. He stood protectively in front of the blonde.

"Na-ru-to," Orochimaru hissed. "If you don't come here, I will make sure your death is more painful than what I did to you all those years ago," he threatened. Naruto's face turned white; the other students' faces showed confusion. What was going on?

"Naruto don't listen to him," Sasuke told him quietly. Naruto looked at him.

"If you don't listen," Orochimaru began walking to the other students, "I will kill this girl." He grabbed one of the girls in the room by her arm and dragged her back to his original position. He held the knife to her throat.

The girl, Ami, was one of the girls that had always been mean to him; she had been one of his tormentors. For this reason, she thought her life would end. She-and the other students-believed that Naruto would let her die to save himself. After all, he was a monster…or so they believed. Therefore, they were shocked with what happened next.

"Iie!" screamed Naruto. "Don't kill anyone else! Please," he begged.

"Then come here," Orochimaru said, glaring.

"Naruto, don't," Sasuke pleaded, but he knew what Naruto would do. Naruto would never allow someone to die for him.

"I have to, Sasuke. He'll kill her," he whispered. "Just try to get them to safety somehow," he said, talking about the other students.

"I can't just leave you," Sasuke told him.

"You have to," Naruto said to him, pleading with his eyes.

"Get over here, boy!" shouted Orochimaru. He shook Ami by her arm. "Or do you want her to die."

"I'm coming. Just don't hurt her," Naruto said shocking the other students further still. He started walking to the front of the room, and tears rolled down his cheeks. When he reached Orochimaru, the man let the girl go and instead grabbed Naruto. Ami ran over to her friends in the corner.

Sasuke slowly reached into his pocket and gripped his phone. He hit the number two key and quickly sent a message containing one word. A noise signaled the phone's success in sending the message. Sasuke froze. Orochimaru growled and dragged Naruto back to where Sasuke was. He grabbed the phone out of Sasuke's hand. He threw it across the room and slammed the handle of his knife into Sasuke's temple. The boy dropped like a rock.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted. He tried to help his boyfriend, but Orochimaru whipped him around like a rag doll.

* * *

Itachi heard his phone beep and looked down. He read the new message and quickly called the unit stationed closest to his brother and Naruto's school. He told them to get there as fast as they could and to be prepared. He also told them which room Sasuke and Naruto would most likely be in at that moment.

* * *

Orochimaru stalked to the teacher's desk and slammed Naruto down on it. Naruto knew what was coming and struggled. Orochimaru punched him in the side of the head and dazed him. The vile man put the knife to his face. "Those marks on your face are starting to look less noticeable," he breathed. "Maybe we should fix that. Hmmm?"

Naruto, remembering how he got those scars, yelled out. Orochimaru held his head still and sliced into the old scars with his knife. Naruto screamed. The students in the back corner were scared. What should they do? If they tried to help, the crazy man would surely kill them. Even though they didn't really like Naruto, they didn't want to see anyone literally tortured in front of them.

Orochimaru sliced open Naruto's shirt and started on the old scar on his stomach. He cut Naruto up as the blonde boy screamed in pain. "I'm going to kill you like I killed your parents: slowly and painfully!" he screeched. The other students froze.

"Nani?" they asked amongst themselves.

"Hai! That's right! The boy you've ridiculed all this time for killing his parents didn't even do it! I DID!" The man laughed maniacally and looked back at Naruto. The boy was crying, his tears mixing with the blood on his face. "And now I'm going to kill him!"

As Orochimaru raised the knife, intent on finishing Naruto, two police officers with their guns drawn kicked in the doors. Out of reflex, Orochimaru flung the knife at the orange haired man and whipped another one out to fling at the blue haired woman. The first knife hit the man in the chest, but the second knife missed the woman.

"Pein!" she yelled, pointing her gun at Orochimaru.

"Hai," he replied weakly.

"Pein…I remember that name." Orochimaru laughed. "I killed your brother, Nagato, did I not?" **(2)**

"You teme!" screamed Konan. "Step away from Naruto-kun!" she yelled. In response, he flung another knife at her hands. Her gun was knocked away and she was left defenseless. Orochimaru moved to finish off Naruto when more police officers flooded the room, Itachi in the lead. It took him a split second to take in the situation. He fired his gun at Orochimaru until he was sure the man was dead, completely and utterly. He wasn't going to take any chances.

Itachi ran to where Naruto was laying, bloody and out of it, as the other officers made sure the other students weren't hurt. "Naruto-kun, can you hear me?" Itachi asked worried.

"Hai," he responded softly. "Check on Sasuke. He's over there." The blonde pointed. "Go," he said seeing the look on Itachi's face. He knew he should stay with Naruto, but Sasuke was his brother. He was glad Naruto understood.

"Get the paramedics over here!" Itachi shouted and then ran to Sasuke. He shook Sasuke awake. "Sasuke, are you okay?" he asked his brother, anxious.

"Where's Naruto?" Sasuke shouted in alarm. Yep, he was fine.

Itachi and Sasuke walked back over to Naruto as he was being loaded onto a stretcher. The paramedics weren't sure he would be okay because of all the blood he lost. Itachi sent Sasuke with them in the ambulance as he stayed back to sort out everything there.

He saw Konan sitting with Pein as he lay dying. They all knew he would not make it. As he stepped closer, he heard Pein say that he would finally be with his little brother. It only took a few seconds for the light to leave his eyes.

Itachi and the other officers sorted out the hysterical students. They were surprised to see that they were actually worried about Naruto. From what they understood, these were some of the very students that were horrible to him. When they asked, the students explained that after what they saw and heard, they finally understood that Naruto had never done anything wrong. He would have never been able to do anything like that. They all wanted to apologize badly, even though they knew Naruto should never forgive them for what they did to him.

The police officers had the school office send all the students home before then end of the day. They couldn't keep them there after all that had happened. Itachi secretly hoped that the students that had witnessed what happened to Naruto were gossipers. He wanted them to spread the word that Naruto was innocent; that way, when he got out of the hospital (and he _would _get out of the hospital), he would finally be accepted by everyone. He would finally have a halfway normal life. He hoped.

* * *

Sasuke sat by Naruto's bedside, waiting for him to wake up. He had almost had a heart attack when Naruto passed out on the way to the hospital. The blonde had ended up needing a blood transfusion because of the blood he lost.

Iruka and Kakashi were there too. They were on the other side of Naruto's bed. All three of them wondered when Naruto would wake up. Sasuke was feeling extremely guilty for not saving Naruto. He thought it was his fault that Naruto was in the hospital. Iruka and Kakashi could see this.

"Sasuke," Iruka interrupted his thoughts.

"Hai," answered Sasuke.

"Stop beating yourself up over this. This. Is. Not. Your. Fault," Iruka told him.

"It is! I should have protected him," Sasuke told them.

"You did protect him! And without you, the police never would have gotten there in time," Iruka told him gratefully.

"But I should have protected him better. He never should have been put in that situation at all," Sasuke said.

"You couldn't have known that was going to happen. This isn't your fault. No one would have guessed that this would happen," Kakashi butted in.

"But-," Sasuke started.

"Sasuke," they heard.

"Naruto!" they all cried.

"You're alright!" Iruka cried out.

"Sasuke," Naruto started. "It wasn't your fault." Sasuke looked into Naruto's eyes. He saw only truth in those cerulean eyes.

"Arigatou," Sasuke said to him quietly. "…I love you."

Naruto's eyes widened. "I love you too."

"Awww," Kakashi joked.

"Shut up!" Iruka hit him for ruining the moment; Kakashi smiled.

When Naruto went back to school two weeks later, he was shocked. All the kids that had been horrible to him after his parents died came to him and apologized.

"It's okay," he responded to much confusion. They were all wondering how he could forgive them after the things they had done. When they inquired about this, he responded, "I was never really angry at you. You were just believing what your parents told you. What reason did you have not to?"

It was then that they realized: Uzumaki Naruto had reached maturity far faster than many _adults _had, and he truly did have a heart of gold.

* * *

**The End. Yay~!**

**(1) **If this didn't make sense to you, the reason Naruto never recognized the voice before was because Orochimaru made his voice sound different.

**(2)** I know they weren't really brothers, but in my fanfic they are.

Okay, so I already have an idea for another Naruto fanfic and a D. Gray-Man fanfic, but I start school again on Monday, and I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty busy. Hopefully I'll finish and start posting it by the time school's out, but I don't know for sure. :)


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